2023-07-01 15:40:44
French President Emmanuel Macron has postponed his state visit to Germany, scheduled for Sunday night to Tuesday, the German presidency announced in a statement on Saturday, after four days of unrest in France.
“The French President […] spoke today by phone with the German president [Frank-Walter] Steinmeier and informed him of the situation in his country,” the German presidency said in the statement.
“President Macron asked to postpone his state visit to Germany,” the source explained.
Meanwhile, police made more than 1,300 arrests in the fourth night of riots in France over the death of a teenager shot by police, whose funeral was held on Saturday.
In context: Protests over police brutality already leave 24 officers injured in France
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin reported that the violence was “of a much lower intensity” than on previous nights, but his portfolio recorded 1,311 arrests across the country.
The number of detainees reported this Saturday is the highest since the riots began on Tuesday, following the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old boy who was shot at point-blank range by a policeman during a traffic control in a suburb of Paris.
His funeral began this Saturday in Nanterre, the municipality northwest of Paris where he lived. A large crowd gathered at the local cemetery, where the atmosphere was tense, according to an AFP journalist.
“May he rest in peace, may justice be done. I have come to support the mother, she had no one but him, the poor thing, ”a woman who did not want to give her name told AFP, as she left the Nanterre funeral home.
It may interest you: What is happening in France? The background of the murder of a young man at the hands of the Police that has the country in the midst of riots
The death of Nahel M. gave rise to four nights of riots throughout France. According to the authorities, at dawn on Saturday 1,350 vehicles were set on fire or damaged, 234 buildings burned or deteriorated and 2,560 fires were registered on public roads.
The Interior Ministry also claimed that 79 police officers and gendarmes were injured.
Likewise, the death of the young man, whose family is originally from Algeria, stirred up the debate on police violence in France, where in 2022 13 people died in similar circumstances and generated criticism of law enforcement, perceived as racist by the population. .
Neither the 45,000 agents mobilized nor the armored vehicles deployed throughout the country managed to stop the acts of vandalism in cities such as Marseille (south) or Lyon and Grenoble, both in the center-east, where groups of people -in many cases hooded- looted shops.
In Paris and its suburbs, despite the rain, there were also riots early Saturday morning. In that area, there were 406 arrests, about half of the arrests made nationwide, a police source told AFP.
Authorities imposed curfews in at least three towns in the French capital region and several others across the country.
On Saturday morning, the merchants of various cities, such as Lyon, took stock of the damage, upset.
“On Monday, I call [a la agencia inmobiliaria] Omnium and I put everything up for sale, that’s enough”, declared the owner of a store, located in a pedestrian street that was littered with rubble, in the center of the city.
“You have to go, there is nothing else to do,” said the manager of a small nearby hotel.
– “Racism” –
The Executive decided to suspend all major events and organized a new crisis cell meeting to study the next steps to take, the Prime Minister’s office reported.
In addition, the ministers were asked to remain in Paris for the weekend.
The UN called on the French authorities to seriously address the “deep” problems of “racism and racial discrimination” in its security forces, accusations that the Foreign Ministry described as “totally unfounded.”
Mounia, the victim’s mother, told France 5 that she does not blame the police, but only the officer who took her son’s life.
The court ordered preventive detention for voluntary manslaughter for the 38-year-old agent who shot, who, according to his lawyer, asked Nahel’s “forgiveness” family.
In an attempt to defuse the situation, the French soccer team, led by Kylian Mbappé, said in a statement that “the time for violence must stop” and make room for “peaceful and constructive ways of expressing themselves.”
“Since this tragic event, we have witnessed the expression of popular anger that we understand deep down, but we cannot accept in form,” the footballers wrote.
In context: France will deploy 40,000 police and gendarmes to prevent a third night of riots
The unrest has raised concerns in other countries as France will host the Rugby World Cup next autumn and the Olympic Games in the summer of 2024.
Several European countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Norway have warned their citizens in France to avoid riot zones and to exercise caution.
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