2023-07-02 15:15:05
In the center of Marseille, July 1, 2023. CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP
“Are you coming with me, are we looting Louis Vuitton? » At the corner of La Canebière and Cours Belsunce (1st arrondissement), Saturday July 1 in the early evening, even the flirting arguments are imbued with the spirit of the times. The heart of Marseille has just experienced two evenings of violent incidents marked by the sacking of several hundred businesses and is about to enter a third night of looting. The atmosphere is heavy. Like the day before, public transport stopped at 6 p.m., demonstrations are prohibited and “soft mobility” operators are firmly asked to remove electric bicycles and scooters, potential “weapons by destination” to smash windows. But this time, dozens of CRS trucks are blocking access to shopping streets, devastated a few hours earlier.
The night will be no less explosive. Result: seventy-one arrests and seven police officers injured, including one hit in the head by a firework mortar. The day before, ninety-five people have already been arrested and thirty-one members of the police injured, according to the police headquarters.
Spared by the riots in working-class neighborhoods in 2005, marginally affected by excesses during the demonstrations of “yellow vests” or more recently against the pension reform, Marseille maintained its legend of a united city in all circumstances. The weight of drug networks was often mentioned to explain the relative calm of working-class neighborhoods.
Do “as well” as in Ile-de-France
So many elements undermined by the wind of revolt which follows the case of Nahel M., a teenager killed by police fire on Tuesday June 27 in Nanterre. The large cities in the north of the city did not blaze, but the shopping centers of Merlan (14th arrondissement) and Grand Littoral (15th) were targeted by raids by rioters. An Aldi supermarket was looted and burned in Les Flamants (14th). A Volkswagen dealership was attacked on Sunday July 2, early in the night.
Firefighters intervene on a damaged and burned Aldi store in the Les Flamants district, north of Marseille, in the south of France, on July 1, 2023. CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP
Marseille ignited late, Thursday June 29, when other large cities were already under high tension. After a rally to denounce “racism, discrimination and police violence” et “to pay homage to Nahel”, at the call of the Coordination of the 40th anniversary of the march for equality and against racism, the evening degenerated in the sector of Belsunce and Joliette (2nd). In the wake of a procession of several hundred people, dozens of trash cans and fourteen vehicles were burned, a handful of bus shelters broken, according to municipal figures. The images broadcast on social networks of a smoke bomb launched through the broken facade of the Alcazar (1st), suggested a fire in what is the largest library in Marseille. On the sidelines of the parade, around thirty shops, in particular telephony, were already robbed by small groups of young people, often masked.
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