After several days of riots and deep violence across France, things now seem to be quiet. This is at least what the tenors of the Republicans (LR), although cautious, advance this July 6, during a press conference. At party headquarters, Éric Ciotti, alongside Bruno Retailleau and Olivier Marleix, judges that “beyond words and speeches”, it is now time to “take action”. So, he says, Republicans have a “plan to restore law and order.”

And if the right has, “ in a spirit of responsibility”, “ supported the action of the State, the action of the police, of those who direct them and therefore, of the Minister of the Interior”, the party continues to criticize the government’s security policy. “We must break with powerlessness,” said Éric Ciotti. “There is a legitimate anger of the French who demand a firm will on the part of their political leaders” and not “”an umpteenth communication strategy”. “ LR carries this requirement. »

Like its two immigration bills, the right now intends to bring a text “for firmer justice”. “Our proposals are ready. Among them, the increase in prison capacity with a target of 80,000 prison places, and the doubling of the number of closed educational centers for minors, by 2027; the introduction of minimum sentences from the first offense for those in charge of public authority or even the establishment of a system of short effective sentences, in priority for minors.

And to respond to the delinquency of the youngest, LR proposes to “install, as for adults, immediate appearances”, the removal of the excuse of minority and the lowering of the criminal majority to 16 years. A way also for the right, which has continued to toughen its tone since the riots, to continue to point the finger at the government’s “immobility” which it accuses of sinking into a form of “denial”.

“This conflagration is a turning point”, insists Bruno Retailleau. “‘What will have to be rebuilt is everything that has been deconstructed for years: there are the roots of evil,’ judges the leader of the LR senators, citing pell-mell the failure of the school ” who no longer transmits knowledge or republican values” and parental authority. The right proposes to restore the suspension of family allowances for school absenteeism and acts of delinquency of minor children. By comparing its proposals with those of the presidential camp, LR intends to “submit the macronists to the test of the truth”. “This will allow us to see if the government project is up to scratch or if these are simply announcements,” concludes Bruno Retailleau.

But, right, this program is not to everyone’s taste. “As we wanted to be original, we proposed the return of the uniform to school,” laments an observer. “ It’s recycling…”, blows an elected LR. “‘I’m the last right-wing MP elected in the suburbs and you think I was solicited? », asks Alexandre Vincendet. In the eyes of the elected representative of the Rhône, who openly assumes the need for LR to work with the executive, these measures, “ it really makes a sweeping car of all the legislative proposals that we have already tabled in the past “. “The withdrawal of nationality, frankly… It is worthy of the FN and not of a government party. It’s not because Marine Le Pen has remained silent that we have to be even more outrageous! In the entourage of Éric Ciotti, these criticisms are brushed aside: “ For the past few months, we have had a lot fewer centrist sheep. »

And in the hubbub of media interventions, there is a sentence that, for some, does not pass. Referring to the perpetrators of violence from immigration, Bruno Retailleau, on Franceinfo, declared: “ Certainly, they are French, but they are French by their identity. Unfortunately for the second, the third generation, there is a sort of regression towards ethnic origins. “A right-wing elected official wonders: “ I don’t quite understand… It’s violent…” Alexandre Vincendet insists: “ When we bring people back to their skin color, it has a name. And to use the words of Jacques Chirac, during his Vél’ d’Hiv’ speech: “Nothing is insignificant, nothing is banal.” “Asked, Bruno Retailleau judges that his remarks are “situated” not “ in relation to the RN but in relation to (his) convictions”.

Armed with this “ plan”, the right intends to regain control over sovereign issues. And among the twenty or so measures presented are therefore those of forfeiture of nationality for dual nationals convicted of crimes, the automatic expulsion of adult foreigners guilty of a crime or misdemeanour, but also the impossibility for a minor who has been the subject a conviction entered in the criminal record to obtain French nationality by jus soli once he reaches 18 years of age. A new hardening while between LR and the executive, discussions around the immigration law remain at a standstill. “The government hides its eyes to evacuate this question”, castigates Retailleau.