the police are ready in the event of excesses during a tense voting day

The opening of polling stations is imminent for these early legislative elections. A vote that could permanently change the political horizon of France. A day of voting under tension, the police are ready in case of excesses.

This Thursday, June 27, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, already called on prefects to be vigilant to ensure the smooth running of the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7 “in a context marked by several security risks” including “targeted destabilization actions”. The tenant of Place Beauvau recalled, as he does very regularly in his instructions to prefects, that the “terrorist threat remains at a very high level”. He was keen to add that “the international context is tense and could give rise to targeted destabilization actions, particularly on the cyber level or in terms of manipulation of information on social networks”.

“The intelligence services are quite worried”

The risk of public order disturbances related to the results of the vote is therefore high. Members of the police force are already preparing for clashes between groups of radicalized individuals. “We are on security measures that are flexible. The intelligence services are quite worried and that is partly why many police officers and gendarmes will be deployed,” explained Axel Ronde, spokesperson for the CFTC union, on Europe 1.

“These are devices that are quite heavy, but we have experience, particularly after the riots last year, where the police managed to adapt after widespread embrace. Now, we hope that everything will go well,” added Axel Ronde. A widespread embrace which is even more feared during the second round of these early legislative elections, on July 7.