Minister of the Interior (France)
|
|
This article is part of the series
French Officials |
| President of France |
| Prime Minister of France Minister of Foreign Affairs |
| Presidents of the Senate (List) |
Missing image
Place_Beauvau_entrance_dsc00801.jpg
Place_Beauvau_entrance_dsc00801.jpg
The entrance to the Ministry in Place Beauvau is guarded by one gendarme (to the left) and one policewoman (to the right). Joint gendarmerie/police guard duty was seen as a way to bridge the differences between the services.
The Minister of the Interior in France is one of the most important governmental positions, it is responsible for the following:
- The general interior security of the country, with respect to criminal acts or natural catastrophes
- including the major law-enforcement forces (see Police in France)
- the French National Police
- the French Gendarmerie for most operational purposes
- Civil defence and Security Directorate
- the sub-directorate of Sapeurs-Pompiers or Firefighters
- including the major law-enforcement forces (see Police in France)
- the granting of identity documents (passports, identity cards) and driving licenses through the network of prefectures;
- relations between the central government and local governments;
- logistics and organization of political elections, at the national and prefectoral levels (but the results of the elections are overseen by the French Constitutional Council or the administrative courts);
- all départemental préfets and sub-prefects are subordinate to the minister of the interior.
While the ministry of the Interior supervises police forces, it does not supervise criminal enquiries; criminal enquiries are conducted under the supervision of the judiciary.
The current Minister of the Interior is Nicolas Sarkozy, who succeeded to Dominique de Villepin (now Prime Minister) on May 31, 2005.
See Also
External Links
- Official Website in French (http://www.interieur.gouv.fr)