“We are facing a tipping point,” declares Bruno Retailleau after several shootings

“Either there is a general mobilization for this long fight [contre le narcotrafic] which will take years but we will win it, or there is the Mexicanization of the country. This is the choice we have before us.” The Minister of the Interior affirmed, on the evening of Friday, November 1, that“we are facing a tipping point which imposes choices on us”, about the settling of scores against a backdrop of drug trafficking.

Bruno Retailleau spoke from the Ille-et-Vilaine prefecture, six days after a little boy was seriously injured by bullets near Rennes. Visiting the city all day Friday, he first went to the working-class neighborhood of Maurepas, a hotbed of drug trafficking and the scene of numerous settling of scores in recent days. The five-year-old child injured by two bullets in the head on Saturday October 26 was from this neighborhood, as was his father, “drug dealer” according to the minister.

His speech also comes after a shooting in Poitiers (Vienna). Five teenagers aged 15 and 16 were shot and injured Thursday evening in a working-class neighborhood of the city. A suspect is being sought. The shooting, linked to drug trafficking according to the authorities, was followed by a large brawl. “What I see is that there are enclaves in the territory which are evading the law of the Republic and the rule of law,” declared Bruno Retailleau.

“There will be an administrative response to break up the ecosystem, to hit wallets. I asked that we mobilize all state services. Customs officers, tax authorities, labor inspection, residence police…”detailed the Minister of the Interior, who wishes “a new legislative arsenal”.

During his speech, Bruno Retailleau also mentioned corruption in administrations: “What I see is a web of corruption stretching across various administrations.” “There are a certain number of infiltrations. These are financial powers which manage to corrupt, including even in the state administration,” he explained, without wanting to say more.