Drafted during the summer after the disturbances that followed PSG’s European triumph, the text originally contained five articles. Considered in the upper chamber in a sometimes tense atmosphere, it emerges as considerably strengthened, with about twenty additional provisions added at the initiative of the government and the parliamentary right in the chamber.
The Senate adopted it overnight by 229 votes to 105, with the support of the National Rally and despite the strong opposition from the left, which regards many provisions as unconstitutional and an infringement on the “freedom to demonstrate.”
It is now transmitted to the National Assembly, where its examination is expected to spark further heated debates, in the absence of a majority.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said he was “pleased” by the senators’ vote, arguing that they had “considerably enriched” the government’s text.
The occupant of the Beauvau defended a “common-sense” text, in the face of the “urgency” to respond by law to the vandalism of recent days, with more than 2,500 shops affected according to the tally by France’s chambers of commerce and industry (CCI France).
Ten days after the chaotic scenes of October 17, tensions rose several times in the chamber, the left accusing the government of a “liberticidal drift.”
The Communist Fabien Gay spoke of a “legal treason, which deliberately confuses protesters and vandals.” The ecologist Mélanie Vogel condemned a text that “instrumentalizes” merchants, accusing the executive of responding to social demands with “collective punishment.”
Financial Solidarity
The National Rally, which has just formed a parliamentary group in the Senate, seized on this platform to amplify its speeches and proposals, pleased to see certain historic measures of Marine Le Pen echoed by the government, notably the seizure of family benefits from vandals.
The vote on this text also allowed supporters of Bruno Retailleau, a pillar of the Senate’s right and a Les Républicains candidate for the presidency, to develop several strong LR lines, between a “return to order” and an asserted “show of force” in the face of the vandals.
In its flagship provision, the bill creates financial solidarity for any person who knowingly participated in a group formed to commit vandalisms or for those who would remain in an “assembly” likely to disturb public order, despite two warnings from the law enforcement authorities.
The State could therefore act even against indirect authors of the degradations, up to a limit of 10,000 euros per person (about 1.19 million CFP francs).
Family allowances, housing assistance and the RSA could also be seized under the framework of this text. After initially considering softening this measure with a show-of-hands vote, the senators ultimately toughened it during a second deliberation, also incorporating other social benefits such as the family supplement, the back-to-school allowance, and the activity bonus.
Laurent Nuñez announced that he would refer these extensions to the Conseil d’État to verify whether the “balance between solidarity and repair” is properly respected.
Expanded Arsenal
Trade unions, Amnesty International and the National Bar Council strongly opposed the text. This law will not deter the vandals but rather “the mother of a family, the employee, the high school student” from going to demonstrate, lamented Mélanie Vogel.
The right and centrists, who hold the Senate majority, tried to reassure: “This text actually strengthens the freedom to demonstrate,” believes David Margueritte (LR), while social demands are too often “eclipsed” in his view by looting.
New administrative bans on demonstrations, additional territorial bans for foreigners, harsher penalties, easier use of “judicial drones” or algorithmic video protection, expulsions from social housing for troublemakers…
Throughout the night, the Senate markedly hardened the text, adopting numerous security measures, most of them supported by the government.
Criticized by the left, the creation of an emergency procedure to seek the removal within 24 hours of content calling for vandalism published on social networks was also voted.
