Prisca Thévenot, Secretary of State in charge of Youth and Universal National Service, was the guest of the morning show of France Info, this Friday August 4. She spoke about the denunciations of “police violence” by the left-wing political class and her commitments to the Universal National Service, for which she is responsible.
The day after the decision of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal to maintain the provisional detention of the Marseille BAC policeman, suspected of having shot Hedi with a flash-ball, the Secretary of State called the political class to “respect the time of justice”. She also said that she was at the “entire disposal” of the young man who was beaten up for a meeting or a phone call.
However, Prisca Thévenot insisted on recalling that we must not “make an amalgam” between “a police officer who could be found guilty of violence” and “the whole of the police and the institution which protects us on a daily basis “. “You just have to hear the words of Hedi who spoke with humility and responsibility. These words we must all be able to make our own.” The statements of the Secretary of State come at a time when many left-wing political figures, in particular from La France insoumise, hold an anti-police discourse. And this, since the riots which followed the death of Nahel, in Nanterre, on June 27th.
About this urban violence, Prisca Thévenot answered questions about Emmanuel Macron’s remarks in an article in Figaro Magazine. The Head of State evokes a “problem of integration”. “Talking about integration is not pointing the finger at immigration,” she defended herself. “I myself am a child of immigrants and my children are called Paul and Basile. It’s not a first name thing. We don’t judge people for who they are, but for what they do. She also recalled that “parents are responsible for the acts committed by their children”.
Would the Universal National Service (UNS) therefore be a means of responding to these youth riots? “It’s much more than that,” she replied. It is a promise of commitment to learn to be a nation, learn our values and bring them to life on a daily basis.” Asked about the possible compulsory nature of the SNU, Prisca Thévenot refused to give a clear answer, but declared that it would be “counterproductive” to “force a young person”. She pleads more for a generalization of this service which must, in the long term, “become a republican passage”.
The Secretary of State also reacted to the comments of the elected representatives of insubordinate France who describe the SNU as a “recruitment” and their political influence on the younger generation. “I’m not convinced,” she said. The day after the riots, I received young people and none of them spoke to me about the Insoumis. All of them wanted to get involved on a daily basis.” Prisca Thévenot preferred to point the finger at the elected officials of the opposition who “spend their time saying everything and the opposite”. “They refuse debate in the Assembly, yet the place par excellence of democratic debate. They only respect one voice: that of a man who is no longer even an elected official [Jean-Luc Mélenchon, NDLR]. The Secretary of State finally called for “we all take responsibility”.
