PARIS — A
fatal police shooting in
Paris has thrust the issue of police violence to the
heart of a tight French parliamentary election battle between a new left-wing
coalition and allies of centrist President Emmanuel Macron.
اضافة اعلان
Police shot a woman
dead in a car in northern Paris on Saturday morning after the vehicle failed to
stop when summoned by officers and then allegedly drove towards them at speed.
“If you vote for
me, I’ll change the doctrine governing the use of force by the police in our
country,” Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the Nupes left-wing alliance, told
France Inter radio on Tuesday.
“It’s not normal
that we kill someone for failing to stop,” he added, saying that four people
had died in such circumstances in four months including two on the night of the
presidential election in April.
“The police kill,”
he tweeted on Saturday, sparking condemnation from rival politicians and
Interior Minister
Gerald Darmanin ahead of the two-stage vote on June 12 and
19.
Saturday’s shooting
came just a week after police were widely condemned over their conduct at the
Champions League final in Paris, where they teargased football fans and failed
to stop street crime by local youths.
Images of
frustrated passengers being teargased outside a Paris train station over the
weekend after rail services were cancelled also fed questions about their
methods.
“I find Jean-Luc
Melenchon’s way of systematically criticizing the police with totally
outrageous comments to be very shocking,” Prime Minister
Elisabeth Borne said
on Tuesday.
Claims of self-defense
The three officers involved in Saturday’s shooting late morning in Paris’s
18th district say they opened fire on the car in self-defense.
The four people
inside were on their way home after a night of clubbing, with one of the
passengers, Ibrahima, telling RTL radio that the vehicle was in traffic and did
not hit any officer.
The 38-year-old
driver, who has been hospitalized with a throat injury, has a long criminal
record and no driving license, Le Parisien newspaper reported.
A woman in the
front seat was hit in the head by one of the nine shots fired by the officers,
who were detained after the incident but released without charge on Tuesday.
The use of force by
French police is a longstanding and divisive political issue in France, with
Melenchon and other left-wingers frequently criticizing their tactics.
Darmanin said
Monday that police “deserve respect” and that “insulting them dishonors those
that want to govern”.
Far-right leader
Marine Le Pen said Tuesday that Melenchon “is always on the side of thugs, of
criminals. He’s never on the side of the security forces.”
Although several
incidents of police violence have caused outrage in France in recent years,
attacks on the force by terrorists and criminals have also sparked bouts of
public sympathy.
Police unions also
complain about poor pay for officers and difficult working conditions,
particularly in low-income suburbs where hostility to them is deeply rooted.
Macron majority?
Campaigning ahead of Sunday’s vote is set to intensify this week, with
Macron making several trips around the country to lend support to his centrist
“Ensemble” (“Together”) coalition.
Surveys suggest
“Together” is on course for a narrow majority, but the results are viewed as
hard to forecast because abstention is predicted to reach record levels of
around 50 percent.
Melenchon and the
Nupes alliance — which groups his France Unbowed party, the Socialists,
Greens,
and Communists — are hoping for a majority to thwart newly re-elected Macron.
The first round of
voting in 11 constituencies representing French people living overseas took
place on Sunday, with centrist candidates leading their rivals from Nupes.
But increasingly
fierce attacks on Melenchon in recent days by Macron’s allies are interpreted
as a sign of nervousness in the ruling party by some analysts.
Senior MP
Christophe Castaner said the former Trotskyist promised a “Soviet revolution”,
while Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire called him a “French Chavez” in reference
to late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
Melenchon is promising to lower the retirement age
to 60, introduce wealth taxes on companies and high-earners, and hike the
minimum wage by around 15 percent.
Macron needs a
parliamentary majority in order to push through his domestic agenda of tax
cuts, welfare reform, and raising the retirement age.
The 44-year-old defeated
Le Pen in the second round
of the presidential election on April 24, winning a second five-year term.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
