Île-de-France security shield subsidies and Valérie Pécresse, Digi Mart USA News (Île-de-France, France): The administrative court is due to rule within the coming days on the legality of the security program set up by the Les Républicains regional president of Île-de-France. In conclusions consulted by L’Humanité, the public rapporteur considers that the region is not competent to subsidize drones and lethal weapons intended for municipal officers.
Five years after the start of the challenge, the administrative justice system is expected to definitively bury the region’s “security shield” in the coming days. The program, created in 2016 with an annual budget of 11 million euros, was designed to subsidize the purchase of equipment, including drones and lethal weapons, for municipal police forces.
The Communist, Ecologist and Citizen left group (GCEC) in the regional council considers the subsidies illegal. Together with La Quadrature du Net, a association defending digital rights and freedoms, the group filed a challenge in February 2022 before the Montreuil administrative court, arguing that security is a sovereign state responsibility rather than a regional one.
A month earlier, the regional prefect had already warned of the legal risks of the program. According to his services, “no text can legally support the regional council subsidizing equipment for municipal police.
The regional council is therefore not competent to grant this type of subsidy.”
In its conclusions, the public rapporteur recommends annulling several resolutions related to the security shield, on the grounds that “the financing of equipment for security forces and municipal video surveillance cannot be attached to any of the region’s competences.” The rapporteur also recommends annulling a 794-euro subsidy paid in 2022 by the region to the town of Nangis (Seine-et-Marne) to finance the purchase of weapons for its municipal police, for the same reasons.
In most disputes, the administrative court follows the rapporteur’s opinion.
On July 1, 2025, the public rapporteur had already concluded that the program, considerably expanded in 2021, was illegal. That was the period when Valérie Pécresse was running a presidential campaign that ended with 4.8 percent of the vote.
The day after that hearing before the Montreuil administrative court, the regional president responded by summoning 150 mayors to the regional council to promote her security shield and announcing a deliberation note to answer the rapporteur’s conclusions. The court subsequently suspended the taking under advisement of its decision.
The majority led by Valérie Pécresse has since effectively acknowledged the program’s illegality. On September 23, her group Île-de-France Rassemblée (IDFR) filed a motion urging the government to accelerate the legislative process of its bill to widen the powers of municipal police, particularly regarding the use of drones, a bill currently stalled.
The ruling is expected in the coming days.
