At Condé-sur-Sarthe prison, the new anti-organized crime unit is preparing to accommodate 40 inmates.

On October 6, Gérald Darmanin, who had been reappointed Minister of Justice the previous evening, had planned to go to the Condé-sur-Sarthe prison (Orne) to announce the completion of work on the new organized crime unit (following the opening of the one in Vendin-le-Vieil, in Pas-de-Calais, at the end of July) and the transfer, starting in early November, of 40 inmates, considered by the prison administration to be the most dangerous. Everything had been planned down to the smallest detail. And, while the prison staff were lined up in a row in the entrance parking lot, the resignation of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu fell from the sky at 9:41 a.m. Close to the goal, the Minister of Justice, who had thus resigned again, was forced to turn around.

This was supposed to be the first act in an intense communications sequence. On Sunday, October 12, M6's "Zone interdite" magazine devoted a long documentary to Gérald Darmanin's prison policy against drug traffickers. The minister had kept a small scoop for the occasion: the opening, in early 2027, of four new wards to fight organized crime in the prisons of Réau (Seine-et-Marne), Valence, Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), and within the facility that will emerge from the ground in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, French Guiana, in 2029. Finally, the third act, which took place on Tuesday, consisted of inviting around twenty journalists to visit the Condé-sur-Sarthe facility, but without the minister, to confirm that everything was in working order.

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