Parliament definitively approved the Ripost bill on Tuesday, July 21, an arsenal of measures against phenomena that disturb public order, from the consumption of nitrous oxide to urban rodeos and free parties.
After adoption in the Senate early in the afternoon, 351 deputies voted for against 179 in the National Assembly. The National Rally joined its voices to those of the center and the right to pass the text in front of the united left.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez welcomed a text which makes “the choice of intransigence with delinquency”, “without undermining public freedoms and the rule of law”. “It is this firmness, this immediacy that will be able to put an end to the feeling of impunity enjoyed by delinquents, the feeling of injustice suffered by our fellow citizens and the feeling of helplessness that police officers and gendarmes sometimes feel,” he underlined.
Conversely, LFI MP Andrée Taurinya denounced measures inspired by the National Rally program, “undermining the rule of law and fundamental freedoms”, with a single objective, “targeting young people, racialized precarious populations, travelers”… RN Michaël Taverne for his part castigated the “lax left”, then the Macronist camp which, with this “catch-all” text, “deals with subjects that you have ignored while you were responsible” for ten years.
Creation of an offense of organizing and participating in a free party
On Monday, deputies and senators agreed during a joint committee bringing together seven elected officials from each chamber on a common version. Most of the measures in the Minister of the Interior’s bill have been validated, whether it is the ban on the sale of nitrous oxide to individuals, the creation of offenses of organizing and participating in a free party, or even the increased penalties for urban rodeos.
The only disappointment for the government: the deletion of an article aimed at strengthening administrative stadium bans, in particular by extending them to other gathering places and over time. The PS, LR and RN voted for the deletion. “I regret it because we needed to strengthen our means of action against homophobic and racist chants in sports venues,” lamented Laurent Nuñez.
Another measure was not retained, which had been introduced to the Assembly via an amendment by Paul Midy (Renaissance), aimed at experimenting with algorithmic video surveillance in businesses. The joint committee reinstated several measures which had been deleted in the Assembly, such as the increase in the amount of the criminal fixed fine (AFD) for the consumption of narcotics, or the elimination of the retention of recordings from video surveillance devices in police custody premises.
The inclusion of misdemeanor fixed fines in bulletin no. 2 of the criminal record sparked a lively debate, but was retained.
