Former French interior minister, Charles Pasqua. © FRED DUFOUR / AFP
Charles Pasqua, right-wing interior minister in the governments of Jacques Chirac and Edouard Balladur, has caused a stir by suggesting on French public television that Islamist detainees be shipped off to an island to stop prisons being breeding grounds for terrorism. Article source: "Charles Pasqua veut envoyer les djihadistes au bagne", Le Point.fr, 09/03/2015.
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Charles Pasqua is famous for having the gift of the gab. He confirmed his outspoken reputation in a televised interview on Sunday [8 March] when he declared that France should send radical Islamist convicts to a secluded island instead of keeping them in French prisons, thereby basically advocating the reinstatement of penal colonies.
The comment came after prime minister Manuel Valls announced on the radio station RMC on Monday [2 March] that antiterrorism measures in prisons were to be reformed, causing Pasqua to lose his cool the following Sunday afternoon on public TV channel France 2.
‘I hear that all dangerous Islamist prisoners are going to be put together in the same place. Bravo! And where is this place? In mainland France? No, this must be a joke!’
The French prime minister had said he wanted to make it a general rule to have only one inmate per cell in order to fight Islamist radicalisation in prisons, and in particular to isolate a few dangerous individuals.
“Let’s put them all on an island”
Pasqua, now aged 87, castigated the government proposals during an interview with well-known news presenter Laurent Delahousse, who was visibly astounded by the comment. When asked if a French-style Guantanamo might be the only answer, Pasqua answered: ‘Let’s put them all on an island, and a remote one at that!’ And, as a clear criticism of the prime minister, he added: ‘If there are some measures one doesn’t want to implement, then one should hand over power, not cling to it.’
The uproar created by Jacques Chirac’s former interior minister recalls the outcry triggered in November 2014 when the anti-European politician Nicolas Dupont-Aignan proposed a similar measure, calling for the Cayenne detention centre (in French Guiana) to be reopened in order to ‘isolate these dangerous madmen.’
Translated by Sébastien Dieuaide and Richard Martin
Editing by Sam Trainor