"I am waiting for a report of National Police director-general about who exactly was behind [the party]. These students will be expelled. You cannot be a police officer and laugh at the rules that you impose on others. To be respected, you have to be respectable. On the basis of evidence, I will expel these students from the uniform of the national police", Darmanin told French broadcaster BFMTV.
Gérald Darmanin: les élèves de l'école de police de Nîmes qui ont organisé une fête clandestine "seront exclus" pic.twitter.com/nOjpnDKLJm
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) November 2, 2020
Authorities of the Nimes National Police School launched an administrative probe into the mass gathering organised last week by some of the students.
By the time the French government declared a second nationwide lockdown on 30 October, curfews had already been in effect in Nimes and most other parts of France for at least a week.
The spread of the coronavirus has been on the rise in France since early autumn. On 25 October, the French health authorities recorded a daily high of over 52,000 cases. As of Monday, France has registered over 1.4 million coronavirus cases, including 37,019 COVID-related fatalities.
