French Senate passes expanded casseurs-payeurs bill, sends it to National Assembly

Senate adopts expanded bill

The French Senate adopted the "casseurs-payeurs" bill overnight into Wednesday, 28 October, by 229 votes to 105, and sent it to the National Assembly. The government presents the text as a response to property damage and violence on the fringes of protests such as the one on 17 October. The bill was drafted over the summer after the disorder that followed Paris Saint-Germain's Champions League title, and it originally contained five articles. The Senate, where the right holds a majority, added around twenty provisions at the initiative of the government and the right. Rassemblement national senators backed the bill, while the left argues that several of its provisions are unconstitutional.

Bill: in favour229

Bill: against105

Amendment: in favour219

Amendment: against115

Bill: in favour

229 votes

Bill: against

105 votes

Amendment: in favour

219 votes

Amendment: against

115 votes

Data from the article text

Joint liability and public order

The bill's central measure creates joint financial liability for anyone who "knowingly participated" in a group formed to commit damage, and for people who stayed in a gathering that could disturb public order after two warnings from the security forces. The original text centred on that liability and on seizing the family benefits of those responsible. The Senate added measures on maintaining public order, which the left says infringe the freedom to demonstrate. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez welcomed the vote and said senators had "considerably enriched" the government text. He defended the bill as a measure of common sense, arguing that the looting and damage of recent days made legislation urgent.

Online content removal

A government amendment, tabled on Monday, 26 October, was approved 219 to 115 in the Senate. It widens the scope of the Pharos portal, where illegal content on the internet is reported, so that the administrative authority can ask for the removal of content "likely to create a serious disturbance of public order". That covers material that incites damage, violence or insurrection. Under the amendment, platforms would have 24 hours to remove such content or face "blocking" or "delisting". The executive could, for the third time in three years, extend the administrative blocking of websites. Right-wing senators, most centrists and the RN supported the measure, though some LR and centrist senators questioned its proportionality. LR senator Damien Michallet defended it in these terms:

“It is about disarming offenders and the way they use networks.”

The ecologist Thomas Dossus described the measure as a disproportionate infringement on freedom of expression. Communist senator Fabien Gay went further in his criticism of the bill:

“It is a legal forfeiture that deliberately confuses protesters and rioters.”

Protest calls and government response

The government has announced responses to demands from pupils and students. Ministers for National Education and Higher Education said they would replace Parcoursup, reduce class sizes in seconde and launch a plan to renovate school buildings. The youth union intersyndicale was not fully convinced and still calls for mobilisation on Saturday, 31 October. Two routes have been proposed in Paris, and the government plans a police operation as large as the one held on Saturday, 24 October. The bill's examination in the National Assembly is expected to bring new heated debate, since no party has a majority in that chamber.