Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau announced on Tuesday that he was taking legal action over a tweet by LFI MP Raphaël Arnault referring to a “assassination of Kanak by French police forces” in New Caledonia.
“During the day, I will contact the public prosecutor, which means that I will file a complaint,” declared on CNews and Europe 1 the new tenant of Place Beauvau, denouncing remarks by a “unacceptable violence”.
“Assassination of Kanak by French police forces sent specially from 17,000 km away”
“All those who put a target on the backs of our police officers, our gendarmes, will find me in their way,” said Mr. Retailleau.
“Assassination of Kanak by French police forces sent specially from 17,000 km away”, Raphaël Arnault had denounced on Saturday on X after the death of two men from the Saint-Louis tribe, south of Noumea, during a police intervention on the night of Wednesday to Thursday.
“The Minister of the Interior is starting strong (…). One of his first announcements is to silence the voices of the opposition,” said the Vaucluse MP at a press conference on Tuesday, reacting to Bruno Retailleau’s comments.
“In reality, it is not so much the wording of the tweet that is problematic, it is the fact that we are denouncing the fact that there are Kanaks who are being killed”he added, denouncing “the extreme right-wing shift and the brutalization of political life.”
The president of the LFI deputies, Mathilde Panot, accused Mr. Retailleau of acting “at the request of the National Rally”RN MEP Matthieu Valet having indicated on Monday evening on LCI that he had “request” the Minister of the Interior to file a complaint against Mr. Arnault.
“We are just saying that repression is not the solution”
“No one has ever authorized the killing of any police officer (…). We are simply saying that repression is not the solution,” she insisted, while refusing to comment on the use of the word “murder”.
Since May 13, New Caledonia has been experiencing violence unprecedented since the end of the 1980s. It has left a total of 13 dead, including two police officers, hundreds injured and caused considerable material damage.
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