The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, was grabbed by a man on Thursday April 17 in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, in the premises of the Guadeloupe 1ère television channel. The attacker was immediately arrested and placed in police custody, Agence France Presse learned from a Source close to the investigation and two witnesses to the scene.
Gérald Darmanin went to the channel’s premises in Baie-Mahault to record an interview, at the end of his two-day trip to Guadeloupe, which saw him announce a curfew for minors in Pointe-à- Clown.
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A man “in his twenties” in police custody
According to witnesses consulted by AFP, an elderly man “about twenty years old” according to the Source close to the investigation, approached the minister asking to speak to him.
The minister then held out his hand to him and it was then that the man grabbed him quickly by the arm and shoulders before being overpowered by the minister’s security men, described one of the two witnesses.
The man was placed in police custody at the Baie-Mahault gendarmerie, the Source close to the case told AFP, adding that an investigation had been opened to “violence against a person holding public authority and rebellion”.
The minister was not injured
This same Source indicates that the man “ wanted to escape and didn’t let it happen” and showed himself “uncooperative” during his custody. The usual tests could not be carried out and the young man was “hospitalized in psychiatric emergency” from Pointe-à-Pitre University Hospital, Friday evening, according to the same Source.
The minister was not injured. He then recorded his interview as planned.
“I discussed it with the minister who told me that it wasn’t too serious and I hope it ends well for the young person,” Ary Chalus, the president of the Guadeloupe region, told AFP.
Asked about this episode, the socialist deputy Christian Baptiste for his part replied: “I don’t know the conditions in which this happened, but we cannot accept the unacceptable, that a minister could be attacked, and we can question the security service.”
Gérald Darmanin did not wish to comment on this incident.
