“Because of thugs, we can no longer celebrate the National Day”, deplores the president of the mayors of France

2023-07-12 10:30:06

Montargis, Boulogne-Billancourt, Sartrouville… For fear that the urban riots will experience a resurgence on July 14, mayors have taken the decision to cancel the fireworks, the high point of the national holiday. “Because of thugs, we can no longer celebrate the National Day, and I think it’s much more serious than we think”, was moved this Wednesday morning on France Inter the president of the Association of mayors of France David Lisnard (LR), mayor of Cannes.

Police officers warned of a resurgence of urban violence on July 14, in line with the riots which, for several days, inflamed certain neighborhoods after the death of Nahel, 17, shot dead in Nanterre during a police check. June 27th.

In Cannes, the festivities are maintained for the moment. “Each mayor knows very well what he has to do, I am at their service, not the other way around” as president of the AMF, Lisnard said. Some cities took this decision so as not to overload the emergency services, which can be mobilized on forest fires because of the drought, as in Strasbourg, others for security or to relieve the police. “I understand the mayors who are faced with inextricable situations in terms of public order, but do you realize the setback that it represents not to assume the National Day, (not to) assume the taking of the Bastille and the Convention Day? “, he questioned. The Republican sees it as “one more sign of a deep malaise in our society”: “Public order is a sovereign competence, it is one more sign of the collapse of the sovereign state”.

The city councilor, who advocated in the columns of Le Parisien on June 29 “a methodical, clinical takeover, without any backlash, from the street”, nevertheless warns this Wednesday that “if we attack in depth one scourges of society, the deal (the riots) will be much more violent and we risk seeing the emergence of automatic weapons”.