MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, here on April 4, 2024, was attacked by a man in Guadeloupe on April 18, 2024.
POLITICS – Gérald Darmanin was grabbed sharply but not injured this Thursday, April 18 near Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe) in the premises of the Guadeloupe 1ère channel by a young man, immediately arrested and placed in police custody, he said. -we learned from a source close to the investigation and two witnesses to the scene.
The events took place while the Minister of the Interior came to record an interview in the premises of this television, in Baie-Mahault, at the end of his trip to Guadeloupe during which he announced the establishment of a covering fire from 8 p.m. for minors in Pointe-à-Pitre, a city qualified as “cut-throat” by its mayor.
A man “about twenty years old” according to the source close to the investigation, approached the minister asking to speak to him, two witnesses who wished to remain anonymous told AFP.
The minister then extended his hand to him and it was then that the man grabbed him quickly by the arm and shoulders before being overpowered by the minister’s security men, described one of the two witnesses.
The man hospitalized in psychiatry
The man was placed in police custody at the Baie-Mahault gendarmerie, the source close to the case told AFP, adding that an investigation had been opened to “violence against a person holding public authority and rebellion”.
“He wanted to escape and didn’t let it happen” and showed himself “uncooperative” during his custody. The usual tests could not be carried out and the young man was “hospitalized in psychiatric emergency” from Pointe-à-Pitre University Hospital, Friday evening, according to the same source.
The minister was not injured. He then recorded his interview as planned. “I discussed it with the minister who told me it wasn’t too serious and I hope it ends well for the young man”, Ary Chalus, the president of the Guadeloupe region, told AFP. Gérald Darmanin did not wish to comment on this incident.
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