REPLAY: French PM speaks after crisis meeting

You're watching France 24. Let's go live now to the heart of Paris where the French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is addressing the end of the crisis meeting he's just held with his ministers following the protests in Paris. The way in which this disorder unfolded especially by the far left and in the evening there was delinquents and since yesterday evening there's a general issue. We saw this, these images of Paris, and even now the far left in Marseille is still a problem we are working on. In this context, we have decided on several things. First is a criminal response, which is massive, significant. There are many detentions, that is, people have been arrested, and then they're being held in custody, and there is a very high, almost an 80 percent prosecution rate so that we have many who are being heard before prosecutors general and they will have to explain themselves. It goes without saying that two-thirds of these people are adults, most men, many known by our services so judicialization will also help us calm things down in order to prevent some people from continuing to cause problems on social media. We see that many looters are geniuses. There's this idea of not using any masks. There is a massive judicial procedure in France. I think we have 200 investigators just for the Paris prefecture who will be looking at the images and the films, and the Prefect and Interior Ministry will give new elements to enable our citizens to be part of these investigations. That's for the judicial part. But the second decision that I took within this crisis cell meeting is that we have a very disparate geographical situation. People watching TV think that it's a disaster and a mess everywhere. Perhaps it is a bit of a mess, but very, very localized. I also asked the prefect to install some partial curfews and the prefects will be discussing this with mayors and also with shop and business owners because there are many shops that have been affected. There's been this classic delinquents, but there's also specific looting and the whole idea is probably to resell all this. And we do not want things to take root like this. So I've given this instruction to the prefectures for a partial curfew. So throughout the afternoon, the Interior Ministry will be able to give you mapping, precise mapping of what the prefect will decide. I'm letting them discuss this with the relevant mayors, but also in the economic world. There will be public money put on the table. That's normal in this situation. We have to reestablish order as soon as possible. Third thing is accompaniment measures. And I'm saying it now because people are talking about this. The looters and the vandals are the ones who are going to have to pay. It's our bill before the parliament in order to be able to tap into social benefits. And the government will have to move on this fast. it's timely, but we have a civil responsibility here. We have to ensure that if people are convicted, then they have to be called upon to answer for their civic duty. In Limoges, there was destruction before public money can be disbursed. We need to have the individual liability of those who are responsible for these acts. Now, for businesses, Minister Papin of the budget and economy are abroad but we have to enable businesses to start back to work that means not to wreck jobs french businesses are major employers so we have decided to trigger partial unemployment insurance and our ministry will do this without the usual delays we will do this 100% immediately. So it's not something that will continue. It's a job protection. We do not want, they've already suffered losses. Next, we will untie a support fund for all these businesses. I'm not sure exactly which fund it will come from, but there will be a support fund, whether it's social or not. I will make it such that the ministries agree. They will look on the ground is what is to be done. There's a need for treasury. Many shops had already stocked up for Christmas, so they cannot lose the entire season. We will be very quick and precise in responding to this. And then there's also insurance. Discussions are already underway with insurance companies to accelerate the different types of expertise so that shopkeepers and businesses don't get bogged down in paperwork so that they can be reimbursed. There can be a first amount disbursed for those insured. And of course, much work is being done and the ministries will come back to this. Today's meeting this morning made it possible to set up some appointments this week with the interior ministry, for example, because it has been seen that there's a far left movement that wants to create mayhem, to put it mildly, profound disorder between now and the moment when the presidential elections take place. So there is this entire cloud that can be set into motion to try to destabilize the holding of elections. So this is going to be something we act on directly. That brings up many questions. First, How do we protect this democratic framework that is the presidential elections? One violent minority cannot prevent us from holding these elections. That's an issue of the safety and security of the candidates, the security and safety of rallies, irrespective of the political party. and I will talk with the Interior Ministry because I know that this mayhem attempt must be stopped. Same thing with regard to the trade unions. I'm a goalist and trade unions must be protected. We cannot let these vandals, violent people, break these rights. we know what has happened in the past during the reform on retirement plans and retirement. This is something we have to discuss with trade unions and they have asked for a right to demonstrate on 5 November. They have that right, but within the Interior Ministry, together with them, we have to see what are the conditions of security for expression of these movements and demonstrations. We cannot imperil french employees and even young people children many people did come out and sometimes they may not be in agreement with the policy of the government but it's the duty of the government to provide them with a framework to exercise their freedoms now the different political parties not to talk to them about violence we hope that they all know where they live We have to choose your camp. But together with the interior minister, we want to talk about the police. Now, for three weeks, we've been told that the police is killing or injuring. For two days, we're being told what the police is doing. This is a media and political debate. But we cannot have instrumentalization of the police in this electoral debate. It just cannot happen. Everyone is talking about, you know, maintaining order. I'm not sure if we were to ask all the political leaders, do they really know how we have organized law enforcement? And I'd like to say that on Saturday, if there were very difficult scenes, scenes of violence and attacks on property, no one was killed. And it is simply a miracle. It is a miracle that the outcome is not worse. It means that the police and gendarmes are doing their work in a very difficult context with a doctrine that is known. So the doctrine has to be further improved. Yes, this will be part of the points that I want to bring up with the different political parties to say, OK, if you're all wanting to politicize this, let's talk about it and to try to get technical about it. Because I have myself as a reservist in the army, I don't like the police and gendarmes' work being called into question. Now, your action faced with the looters and the vandals, are there measures together with the interior ministry that are being planned? Go ahead, Laurent. Yes, of course. as what the prime minister mentioned this is a discussion of the doctrine on maintaining law and order and awaiting the president of the republic he said this in his statement he said that under the authority of the prime minister he wants me to come up with some measures to prevent the vandals and looters and of course we will set up these measures starting this evening even yesterday evening things were happening in some big cities so we will be very reactive first part in answering your question second part to my answer yes we will continue to beef up the police forces and gendarmerie this weekend clearly bfm tv we hear a lot about the state of emergency that has not been decreed. Is this something you can envision or you feel it's not necessary? You spoke of partial curfews. What are the cities concerned? For instance, in Paris, Lyon and Marseille, will there be curfews starting tonight? Could we have more specificities and will this have consequences on events such as the Paris Saint-Germain soccer match against the Barcelona team. This will be part of the measures that we'll be talking about with regard to the football match. Now, about the state of emergency, I cannot say things anymore. All the tools that the government has singularly in the prime minister's hands under the the competence of the president of the republic I will use what I need to but a state of emergency is not a political goal it is something that's heavy including to in store it so if it is necessary we will be able to do this for now the issue of establishing curfews is better suited to the situation These curfews will have to be local. Not all of Paris will be under curfew. This makes no sense. It doesn't focus on what we've seen yesterday. That wouldn't be the solution. Not everything was the same everywhere, thankfully. But we do see that there are areas where every time, for reasons related to transport, public transport, like Les Halles or the République Square, We cannot continue as we have thus far. So gradually, I will use the tools we have at our disposal, and an exchange will require that the government have a proper level discussion with those in the opposition, with social partners as well, because they have the right to demonstrate. So there's a balance we have to strike in this big country of ours. Looking back on our history, we have to maintain our composure between maintaining public order we don't want this mess to continue and we don't want on the other hand to impinge on free personal freedoms now on the football matches and the emergency meeting of the cabinet we've looked at the availability of the forces and the possibility of calling into question certain events to keep some leeway to manage public order we spoke of the soccer games, this is not something relevant for the match between Paris and Barcelona and for other Europe cups. These have not been called into question. Could you speak to us about the responsibility? You recognize that the police did not control everything in all cities. Now, in terms of intelligence territorially, have there been failures? Has the government been up to the task are you still confident in your interior ministry we heard that Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella refused to participate in this meeting so what do you think for this meeting that's supposed to take place next next weekend well you've just told me about this i have not sent the letter so i would ask that they reconsider given the agenda because this is part of the presidential campaign we must do this we be transparent with all the political parties it's too easy to say that it's the government's fault i will always shoulder my responsibility that's my only mandate right now i'm prime prime minister this is my career that's it however i think everybody wants to shoulder or must shoulder their own responsibilities with regard to violence and it's true with regard to organization of rallies and the law enforcement and services order and I know that the far left they want to provoke mayhem do I still trust Laurent Nunez yes of course otherwise he wouldn't be by my side and we're not going to play this game of resignations I was minister of the armies i know when the state is having a difficult time we hold tight and we reaffirm our support in those who have the courage to take decisions but we all have the humility to go before the french people to say this is what we succeeded in and this is where we messed up because there are things we did uh succeed in others where we really messed up but we have to do this with composure and respect for those who are implementing, executing law and order. He has been a prefect, Mr. Nunez. He was in Marseille. Now he's Minister of the Interior. He's not been able to prevent all the blunders, but we are hopefully going to be able to put all this together and solve things. Yes, that is the answer. I trust him. on the accompaniment measures you spoke of partial unemployment insurance are there any other measures second will you re-evaluate the uh evaluation will you re-evaluate the effect and the impact on businesses third are you calling upon platforms that uh resell products with a very clear issue when these things of dubious origin, do you have a way to identify these? Okay, on the number of businesses that have been damaged or looted, we have an evaluation, and it's about 3,000. That's not nothing. We have set up a mechanism to provide support and assistance within the trade ministry, and I'm doing this under the authority of the Prime Minister. We spoke of the partial activity. We spoke of also easing the fiscal burdens. And, for example, when there were the fires in the Gironde department, we have dedicated support. We will produce a press release this afternoon in order to facilitate coordination between the investigators and platforms, and Minister Noénon, who is working on digital issues, to provide answers in this field. And especially, we have the relevant ministries with regard to the economic issues. We need them to concert, to consult, and these things are different. They're different elements. So we have to look at this in a long-term manner. One thing is sure, budgetary discussions are underway together with David Amié. We can inject the government's decisions to change things. We can adapt these support tools. This is our flexibility in this situation. Thank you to all of you.