will the Barnier government overcome the insufficient security response?

POLITICS – Alone on stage? As the government prepares to announce a new plan to combat drug trafficking, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau is taking the lead by increasing the number of martial declarations. In its sights: organized crime networks, of course, but also consumers.

More discreet, his colleague Didier Migaud is also in charge. To prepare the announcements which should be made at the end of the week in Marseille, the Minister of Justice receives this Monday, November 4, the two authors of a shocking parliamentary report – senators Jérôme Durain (PS) and Etienne Blanc (LR) -, who called last May for a “ a necessary start » pour « escape the trap of drug trafficking. »

Third man in the equation, Michel Barnier will make his decisions in the coming days, before the visit of his ministers to the Marseille city. While waiting for these conclusions, the clues left here and there in particular by Bruno Retailleau, point to a new “ turning » security, in a logic which seems to show its limits.

Retailleau’s chin thrusts

The Minister of the Interior has gone on the offensive. While shootings or murders against a backdrop of settling scores linked to drug trafficking regularly make the news in France, the Minister of the Interior promises a « guerre » long and merciless campaign against drug trafficking. Even if it means resuming a discourse that sometimes strays from the truth and encouraging a completely safe response, which is undoubtedly incomplete.

In terms of form, Bruno Retailleau believes that the country is in the process of “ mexicanisation. » However, if there is no doubt about the increase in violence and tragedies attributable to this trafficking, such a comparison makes little sense. Among other data, the homicide rate in France (1.5 per 100,000 inhabitants) is for example twenty times lower than that of Mexico (28 murders per 100,000 inhabitants). “ Drugs taste like blood because if there's no demand, there's no supply », he insisted over the weekend, in a speech which completely obscures the phenomena of addiction or the (sometimes complex) causes leading to consumption.

On the bottom, the chin strokes of the “ first cop of France » actually do a poor job of hiding the extension of the previous government's strategy. Last Friday, while traveling in Rennes, a city where a five-year-old child was seriously injured by bullets during a settling of scores at the end of October, the minister explained that he wanted “break the ecosystem” drug trafficking, in particular by attacking consumers and “culture of trivialization. » An air of deja vu?

The left castigates a policy which “has no results”

It is indeed difficult to find a difference between this speech and that of his predecessor Gérald Darmanin, who promised to “ harass consumers » to the point of considering the possibility of imposing tests on public roads. It is also difficult to see the “ seesaw » praised by Bruno Retailleau with a repressive policy at work for decades, and whose results are very meager.

Because it is a fact: despite the firmness displayed by successive ministers, and a file established as the mother of priorities over the years, drug consumption has continued to increase in the country. Today, France is the European champion in cannabis, with 5 million annual users and 1 million daily smokers.

For the left, the government – and the others before it – is therefore in failure. Guest of RTL, this Monday, November 4, Raphaël Glucksmann estimated that “ sending the police to hunt down stoners is not the solution. » In the same logic, the coordinator of France insoumise Manuel Bompard criticized on Public Senate the “ cookie cutter formulas » from the Minister of the Interior. And a strategy that “has no results”, both on fixed fines and on “net market transactions”, organized according to him with a lot of communication.

The issue of “ public health » hidden?

In this context, what should we concretely expect from the government? Without even mentioning the legalization of cannabis, advocated by several political parties, institutions or parliamentary reports, but which has become taboo in the presidential camp, the repressive or even martial logic towards consumers seems to prevent the emergence of a more healthful and preventive. However, Bruno Retailleau's line (especially effective in causing political noise) will not necessarily be adopted in its entirety.

Michel Barnier has already got into the habit of dampening the outbursts of his Minister of the Interior on various subjects, AME (State Medical Aid) or immigration for example. Above all, the Migaud – Retailleau duo planned to draw inspiration from the report of senators Jérôme Durain and Etienne Blanc for their anti-drug trafficking plan. And it is clear that this focuses largely on the actions to be taken to dismantle networks and target the high end of the spectrum, the individuals at their heads.

He advocates, for example, the creation of a national anti-narcotics prosecution based on the model of the anti-terrorism prosecution, or more technical measures such as changing the status of informant to that of civilian infiltrator. But crushes the very political operations clear squares, dear to Gérald Darmanin as to Bruno Retailleau, which amount to “ empty the ocean with a teaspoon.

Furthermore, the authors of the report implicitly acknowledge that their recommendations cannot represent a complete policy on drugs and trafficking. “ We did not want to address the question of consumption, of decriminalization, because that would have led us to talk about prevention and public health issues”explained Senator LR Etienne Blanc, mid-October, to Public Senate, adding: “ That wasn't exactly our topic. » For the moment, it is not that of the government either.

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