According to polls recently published in France, security is the main expectation French voters have of their mayors, regardless of their political affiliation. In Portes-lès-Valence, a town of just over 10,000 inhabitants located in the south-east of France, local elections candidates have made security their central campaign theme.
Two officers from the Portes-lès-Valence local police station set out on their daily patrol. Driving through the town's known hotspots, they pass school gates and certain residential entrances.
"We have seen a slight increase in drug dealing and in gatherings of young people who are not necessarily using drugs but who can create a sense of insecurity," one of the officers explains.
"We are also seeing a rise in urban rodeos, particularly now that electric motocross bikes are more common. You cannot hear them coming, but they cause the same problems," his colleague adds.
Although the town is the safest in the department's police zone, all three candidates in the local elections have made security a central theme of their campaigns.
"This is not just electioneering. For the past six months, we have been knocking on doors every evening, and people keep telling us the same thing: security, security, security. They have had enough," says Claude Illy, an opposition councillor backing the left-wing list. He and his candidate, Jean-Michel Bochaton, are speaking outside the police station.
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In just a few years, officer numbers have dwindled dramatically. The station is now open only two days a week.
"A municipality, a team, a mayor must also be willing to push back, to knock on doors, to defend the area and ensure that security is maintained," Bochaton explains.
On this issue, Manuel Herrero presents himself as the right man for the job. The independent candidate led the town's local police force for more than twenty years. If he cannot secure the reopening of the post, he is prepared to go further.
"We are going to build a gendarmerie barracks. We want to ask the gendarmerie to return," he says. "We had fifty years of peace when they were here. I already have some serious contacts. We know it will cost between two and a half and three million euros, but I think it is worth it."
"We can fight, we can shout, we can do whatever we like. We can gesture in every direction. But security is a matter of state sovereignty," says Geneviève Girard, the outgoing mayor of Portes-lès-Valence.
The independent right-wing candidate accuses her opponents of exploiting residents' feelings of insecurity. "It can be a powerful message, because people who spend all day in front of their televisions hear things that cause anxiety."
"People no longer talk to one another. They no longer know how to live together. They cannot tolerate each other. There is a deep intolerance in society today, and we must try to address it," she adds.
This article has been adapted from the Reportage in France podcast produced by RFI's Marie Casadebaig.
