Social movements: Laurent Nuñez wrote to the police to show them his “very great gratitude”

In an e-mail sent this morning around 10 a.m., revealed by BFMTV and which Le Figaro was able to consult, Laurent Nuñez thanks the police who have been mobilized for several weeks. “You have been holding on for almost a month and a half now,” the minister wrote to them, returning to the “so-called “high school students” movement, the demonstrations and the national days of action.”

“The freedom to demonstrate is a fundamental right protected by our Constitution and it is the honor of the internal security forces to have allowed its expression,” first recalls the minister. He salutes the forces who “dialogued with organizers” and “supervised processions until their end”, while protecting participants – “sometimes very young” – against “the numerous violence committed on the sidelines of demonstrations or blockades”. Since September, he continues, these mobilizations have given rise to “high intensity, unbridled and uninhibited” violence: “Here, against people and educational staff; there, against property, businesses and public buildings; and too often against the police.”

To the many injured police officers, he wants to “express once again all [his] support”. He believes that certain actions “thus descended into urban violence”, to which the security and emergency forces responded “with control, courage and firmness”.

“You hold on”

“You have been holding on for almost a month and a half now,” writes Laurent Nuñez, who evokes “the extreme fatigue of bodies and minds,” the “permanent provocations” and “attacks which, for some, amount to attempted murder.” He denounces the calls into question of the “professionalism” of the agents, the “legitimacy of [their] interventions” and the “necessity of [their] means of defense”. Despite this, he wrote to them: “You continue to maintain order with endurance, self-sacrifice and a lot of dignity.” His message cites police officers and gendarmes, but also firefighters, intelligence services and agents of prefectures, sub-prefectures and central administration. “While others observe and comment,” he writes, these personnel are “on the ground or completely at [their] task”, serving the “general interest”.

The minister recalls that three successive weekends have mobilized a number of agents on their rest or leave time, “often to the detriment of their families and in any case to the detriment of themselves”. He wants to show them his “very great gratitude” for their “extraordinary commitment”, “all the more admirable because it is expressed over time”. “Because I know what the Republic owes you, count on me to always be in support,” concludes Laurent Nuñez, who promises to defend “this immense commitment and professionalism.”