Petition against the Brav-M: soon a text in the Assembly?

BRAV-M. More than 250,000 people have signed a petition calling for the dissolution of Brav-M. A deputy was put in charge of the file. What can this lead to?

[Updated April 3, 2:12 p.m.] She’s halfway through the accounting process. The petition registered on the site of the National Assembly asking for the dissolution of the Brav-M (Brigade for the repression of motorized violent action) has crossed the milestone of 250,000 signatures, according to the latest count updated on Monday, April 3, 2023. Submitted by a citizen, this text has taken a first step since the Bourbon Palace Law Commission is now working on it. More precisely, exceeding 100,000 signatures automatically led to the petition being filed with the committee, which appointed a rapporteur to study the issue in more detail. The petition denounces “violent and brutal abuses” on the part of these special police brigades, evoking testimonies which “reveal a disproportionate and arbitrary use of force and in contravention of the national law enforcement plan. .” For the author of the text, “she has become one of the symbols of police violence. Far from ensuring a return to appeasement, her action contributes to the increase in tensions, including against the police. of the order.” The accumulation of signatures thus allows the beginning of a (very) long legislative process.

The milestone of 100,000 signatures has been largely exceeded (for the first time since the platform was set up), the National Assembly’s law commission received the request and appointed Eric Poulliat, Renaissance deputy for Gironde, rapporteur for this case. From now on, it is up to the elected official to examine the petition and thus to engage in real parliamentary work on the question, or to classify it and, therefore, not to follow up on it. In an interview with CheckNews, the deputy did not get wet and said he wanted to “take the time to do my job well”: take into account, on the one hand, a request from citizens by analyzing the force used by the Brav-M, and, on the other, “to remind where the republican order and legitimate violence are located.”

A hearing with Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, scheduled for next week, should already make it possible to obtain the first elements of an answer on the subject. Eric Poulliat will submit his decision on whether or not to examine the petition on Wednesday April 5, 2023. He will not be the sole decision maker since it is the vote of the 73 members that will decide the question. “The rapporteur’s decision or the result of the vote in committee should not be read as “for or against” the dissolution of BRAV-M. This is not a commission of inquiry. At this stage, we are called upon to rule on the admissibility of the petition, before the potential holding of a debate, “said Eric Poulliat to Le Monde.

In the case of an examination of the petition, a report is thus produced on the basis of various elements obtained on the subject, in particular interviews with the protagonists of the subject. The study of the report can then be placed on the agenda of the National Assembly, thus giving rise to various speeches, including that of the government. But for that, it is necessary to reach 500,000 signatures and that the signatories are distributed in at least 30 different departments of mainland France and overseas.

If it were to arrive in the hemicycle, the report does not entail any vote. The discussions are for informational purposes. To lead to a vote, it must be a bill (text tabled by a deputy) or a bill (text tabled by the government). It is then necessary to engage all the long legislative process, with the deposit of a PPL or a PJL, an examination in committee then a possible vote with the Assembly and the Senate. Politically, this seems impossible. It is especially the deputies of Nupes who militate for the dissolution of Brav-M. Macronie, LR and RN rather have speeches of support for the police. It is therefore difficult to imagine that such a petition could really succeed.

If, on the legislative level, the approach has very little chance of succeeding, the authorities also refute such an idea. Laurent Nunez, prefect of police in Paris, has repeatedly declared that the dissolution of the Brav-M “is obviously not on the agenda.” The guarantor of the maintenance of order in the capital judges that “the behavior of a few individuals should not bring shame on an entire unit which, in recent years and particularly at the moment, has proven all its usefulness.”