Senator Stéphane Ravier and Philippe Vardon, municipal and regional councilor of Reconquête, met with the police forces from the Moulins police station before addressing the press, on May 11.
“After yet another shooting in the Moulins district of Nice,” on Tuesday, May 9, the supporters of Reconquête chose to visit the area. Indeed, since the beginning of the year, six shootings have happened in the district. The acts of violence at this drug dealing hotspot continue to intensify despite measures deployed by the municipal authorities. A “Moulins plan,” announced last April, includes 24 guards, new surveillance cameras, and a new administrative detention center. Drones have recently been deployed to monitor the district.
It is in this climate of growing insecurity that the elected officials undertook a visit to the police station to primarily express their support for the police officers “who are currently working in extremely difficult conditions.” Philippe Vardon deplores various shortcomings and especially a trivialization of drugs. Prior to this, he points to “a chaotic migration situation” on the ground, insufficient resources, and accuses the justice system of being “far too lenient.” Although Nice is proud of its first municipal police force in France, Eric Zemmour’s supporter particularly laments a shortage of 150 staff in the national police. He notably calls on Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, to address the issue: “It would not only show concern for our city but also respect it.”
“There is truly a cultural battle to be fought”
The municipal councilor shares his avenues for solving this crisis situation. They are manifold and take various forms. In any case, social policies are out of the question for someone who grew up across from this police station, but instead, there is a priority for a massive fight against the trivialization of drugs. Stéphane Ravier supports him; in his view, there should be no distinction between hard drugs and soft drugs. He particularly criticizes the ordinary trivialization of cannabis. “There is truly a cultural battle to be fought,” adds Philippe Vardon. He condemns “a cultural discourse, in the media, in the music industry that not only idolizes a criminal lifestyle but also encourages consumption.”
“It would be necessary for all institutions, associations, sports, cultural, political, and media organizations to agree that drugs are garbage.” The Senator from Bouches-du-Rhône confides that he feels at home in this district he nicknames “the ‘Little Marseille’.” The former member of the National Rally party has been a mayor in the northern districts of Marseille. For him, these two geographies are comparable because “the same causes produce the same effects everywhere, there is no Marseille exception.”
More intense repression against “narco-terrorists”
“We must blow the whistle on this recess,” states Stéphane Ravier. Then, the parliamentarian unveils his ideas for solving this crisis. He takes the opportunity to denounce the millions of euros invested in two tramway stations on Boulevard Paul Montel serving the northern sector of the Moulins district, which, in his view, have only “served to buy social peace.” He recommends a concerted prevention and information campaign, with input from doctors and responsibility placed on parents.
To him, it also involves giving more resources to the police, the justice system, and customs for greater repression. “The authorities must recognize that we are dealing with cartels, narco-terrorists.” He advocates for withdrawing social benefits from repeat offenders, and when there is a conviction, “there must be measures for removing them from the district, and when they are foreigners, steps must be taken for their expulsion.”
Fighting against “chaotic migration”
“More than half of the dealers arrested in Moulins are illegal immigrants, among whom half are minors or claim to be minors,” exclaims Philippe Vardon, based on figures revealed by Christian Estrosi. In a letter addressed to the occupant of Place Beauvau, on March 28, the mayor of Nice wrote: “we know that 60% of the drug traffickers arrested in Moulins are illegal immigrants. This worrying and dangerous situation for the residents of our neighborhoods requires urgent measures.”
Clandestine immigration, according to the president of Retrouver Nice, is a major gateway for drugs, which in turn creates such narcotrafficking in the district, leading to repeated acts of violence. “Cannabis doesn’t grow in Vésubie,” he jokes. “Controlling our borders is also a key issue in this war against drug trafficking,” he continues.
Is the immigration bill a solution?
Philippe Vardon calls for “political courage to give the right orders, to those here in this police station.” The government is currently working on developing the immigration bill. On this occasion, Anthony Borré was received by Gérald Darmanin and Éric Dupont-Moretti. The first deputy mayor of Nice took the opportunity to share the situation in Moulins. “With the increasingly strong and problematic migration pressure at the Italian border, I thank the Minister of Justice, Keeper of the Seals, and the Minister of the Interior for the attention they are giving to our territory. On behalf of the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, I asked them to have a special focus on the Moulins district whose residents are daily victims of offenses committed by illegal immigrants,” he shares in a press release on May 11.
Philippe Vardon is candid. He doesn’t expect much from this bill. However, if he could write it, he knows what it would include. The municipal councilor would advocate for “the end of automatic birthright citizenship, which leads to people becoming French at 18 without even expressing the desire to join the French nation.” Moreover, he would end family reunification and toughen the criteria for obtaining asylum. “That’s a lot to include in this bill, and I’m not sure we’ll find that in the one partly presented by the Macron government,” he concludes.
