2023-07-04 06:00:32
Emmanuel Macron visits the Busserine district, in Marseille, on June 26, 2023. OLIVIER MONGE / MYOP FOR “THE WORLD”
“Generosity”, “respect”, “fraternity”… Spoken by Jacques Chirac on November 14, 2005, eighteen days after the start of “his” suburban crisis, these words contrast with the tone that has dominated the political world since Tuesday, June 27. “It is in words and looks, with heart and in deeds, that the respect to which everyone is entitled is marked”declared the President of the Republic, who remained silent for almost three weeks.
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“I want to tell the children of difficult neighborhoods, whatever their origins, that they are all daughters and sons of the Republic (…). We will not build anything lasting if we allow racism, intolerance, insult, outrage, to rise, wherever they come from,” he continued in an address to the French, relayed these days on social networks by the leader of La France insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon… without the rest of the speech, where President Chirac recalled that “Violence never solves anything”.
Eighteen years later, Emmanuel Macron is in turn looking for the words to address a France which is tearing itself apart before his eyes since the death of young Nahel M., shot dead on Tuesday June 27 by a police officer during a check. road, in Nanterre. “Speaking out can only be considered once the situation has stabilized, specifies the Elysée. We must seek to understand the origin of the violence, which crosses very different municipalities. »
Attacks and invectives
On a surprise visit to the Bessières barracks, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, on Monday evening, the Head of State wanted to support the staff of the anti-crime brigade (BAC) at night. This Tuesday, he was to speak to some 220 mayors who suffered violence in their town, invited to the presidential palace at noon. “We will draw political, social and legislative consequences, perhaps afterwards”projected the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, on Friday on TF1, without however, as he said Monday in Reims, “to find social excuses where there are none”.
In search of a de-escalation on the security front, Emmanuel Macron maintains a deterrent device of 45,000 members of the police, but “without the escalation of symbolic, ineffective, extremist measures, argues an Elysian adviser. If he had given in, the French would have spent the weekend under a state of emergency and a curfew..
From the Elysée, the President of the Republic attends an open battle in the political field, where attacks and invectives are unleashed. A semblance of political harmony appeared on Monday, in support of the mayors targeted by the violence. But a trench is widening between a supposed “justice” camp, in support of Nahel M. to the point of not condemning the looting and destruction, and that of “the police”, who believe they are defending the police institution by taking left for the author of the fatal shot.
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