Macron pulls plug on controversial legislation on sharing images identifying police officers

Paris protests: more than 133,000 people demonstrated against the draft security bill in marches across the country

Credit: Kiran Ridley/Getty Images Europe

President Emmanuel Macron on Monday pulled the plug on controversial legislation on sharing images identifying police officers, after tens of thousands marched this weekend in France for free speech and against police violence.

The decision came as four French police officers were charged with beating and racially insulting a black music producer — the latest in several alleged instances of police brutality caught on camera in recent days.

The shocking attack on Michel Zecler, footage of which has racked up more than 15 million views online, appears to have sounded the death knell for article 24, the most controversial part of a bill aiming to provide better protection for French police forces.

Mr Macron, who wrote this weekend that the images “shame us”, was reportedly furious during a council of ministers meeting on Monday morning in which he demanded the clause be re-written to “restore confidence” between police and the population.

Hours later, Christophe Castaner, head of Mr Macron’s LREM party in parliament announced:  "We propose a total re-write  of article 24.”

Part of a wider “global security” bill, the article had stipulated that it would become a crime punishable by a year in prison and a €45,000 euro (£40,000) fine to "publish, by any means and in any medium, the face or any other identifying feature" of a police officer with the aim of causing them physical or psychological harm.

Critics of the bill would allow police to get away with brutality, as citizens would not be able to film and publish their actions. 

Mr Castaner denied the re-write was a U-turn.

"We acknowledge that there are doubts, that some people consider that the right to inform is under threat. The bill has not been understood by everyone and there were doubts among journalists, the French people, and even within our own majority. That is why it is necessary to clarify it," he said.

Demonstrators climb on the statue 'Le Triomphe de la Republique'

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Opponents demanded to know how the government intended to do so, given that the clause had already been approved by the National Assembly, though it still requires approval from the Senate.

On Saturday, more than 133,000 people demonstrated against the draft security bill in marches across the country. A Paris brasserie was set alight, cars torched and stones thrown at security forces, who responded with tear gas and anti-riot manoeuvres. Some 98 officers were hurt.

Quizzed by a parliamentary commission over the law on Monday night, France’s interior minister, Gérald Darminin, denounced the “unspeakable” acts by certain officers who attacked Mr Zecler.

But he said the force must not be attacked as a whole, and denied there was a "divorce" between the French people and their police.

“There are lots of lesson-givers, but few who would take the risks that police and gendarmes take every day,” he said.

He did agree, however, that the police’s internal inspection unit, IPGN, required reforming, with stronger powers and more independence, seeing “no reason” why it couldn’t be run by someone not appointed by himself.

The move came as a Paris investigating magistrate charged all four officers involved in the Zecler case with assault by a person holding public authority. Three were also charged with fabricating their statements on the incident. Two of the accused were remanded in custody.

Mr Zecler welcomed the charges, saying that he was “satisfied” with the reaction of the justice system.