The true state of the country
Before discussing security, we need to look at the true state of the country. France is not at war within its own borders — let's be precise about that. But some territories are already under very real pressure: from organized crime, from drug trafficking, from poverty, from fraud, from violence in certain neighborhoods, certain ports, certain border areas, and certain overseas territories.
I don't want to address security with a simple soundbite, as if everything could be fixed by a single measure. Security is a far-reaching subject. It touches the police, the justice system, banks, borders, ports, schools, families, businesses, local authorities, social media, trafficking networks, poverty, the flow of money, and at times even relations with neighboring countries.
Look at only one piece of the problem, and you respond to it poorly.
The figures on violence
In 2025, France recorded 982 homicides, 4,501 attempted homicides, 473,000 physical assaults, 56,600 drug trafficking offenses, and 448,700 cases of fraud or payment-card scams.
These figures don't mean the whole country is unraveling. They tell a different story: that violence is changing shape. It is becoming less about ordinary theft and more about local control, trafficking, dirty money, intimidation, and fraud.
Pressure in pockets
Security isn't deteriorating uniformly everywhere. Some towns remain calm. Others account for a disproportionate share of incidents. That is the key point to understand. France is not facing uniform insecurity — it is facing pressure that concentrates in pockets. Some territories hold steady. Others deteriorate. In those places, a criminal group can become an employer, a protector, a threat — at times even a de facto authority for people who no longer see enough of the State.
That is the central danger. When the State withdraws from everyday life, someone else moves in to fill the gap.
The role of poverty
Poverty makes this situation worse. In mainland France, 9.8 million people live below the poverty line. That doesn't mean a poor person becomes a criminal — that would be both false and unfair. But it does mean that a young person with no prospects, a family under strain, an isolated individual, or a territory with no future becomes easier to draw toward quick money, petty trafficking, fraud, or work done for criminal networks.
In the overseas territories, certain levels of poverty make the situation even more fragile. Mayotte, French Guiana, Réunion, Guadeloupe, and Martinique do not share the same realities as mainland France. Security cannot be designed by a rule written solely from Paris.
Substantive answers
We have to put an end to surface-level responses. Security cannot be reduced to a greater police presence in the street, even though that presence is necessary.
It also calls for faster justice, investigations better connected to the flow of money, a stronger fight against money laundering, better-monitored ports, banks put to better use against criminal money, stronger protection for witnesses, responses tailored to each territory, a serious policy for young people at risk of being recruited by criminal networks, and a more visible State presence in places where it has all but disappeared from daily life.
Security that holds
Security has to be matched to reality. I don't want security as a slogan — I want security that holds. Security that protects residents without humiliating their communities. Security that gives law enforcement the means to do their job. Security that gives the justice system the capacity to respond quickly. Security that follows criminal money. Security that protects victims. Security that stops criminal networks from becoming more powerful than the Republic in certain places.
Peace for the French
This is where peace for the French comes from. Peace means being able to go outside without fear. It means being able to send your child to school without wondering which network is waiting outside. It means being able to run a shop without pressure. It means being able to live in a neighborhood where authority belongs to the law, not to trafficking.
It means being able to live in mainland France, in French Guiana, in Mayotte, in Réunion, in Martinique, in Guadeloupe, or in French Polynesia with the same assurance that the State will not abandon you.
A complete vision
My vision for security is therefore a complete one: to keep France from reaching a point where we end up correcting, too late, what we could have prevented earlier.