2023-07-02 21:54:15
For the third night in a row, 45,000 police and gendarmes were mobilized last night throughout France to try to restore order and stop the riots and looting, which have broken out across the country after the death on Tuesday in Nanterre de Nahel, 17, of a police shot. “The mobilization of the internal security forces continues. It does not diminish, “said the Ministry of the Interior.
Since the riots began on Tuesday there have been 3,118 detainees across France, of which 1,311 were arrested on the night of Friday to Saturday, the most violent the country has seen so far. The night from Saturday to Sunday, with 719 detainees, was “quieter”, according to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
The Government remains prudent, however, about what may happen in the coming days, given the socially volatile situation in the country. Many French people fear that the riots could continue for days or even weeks. In 2005, the riots in the Paris periphery lasted for three weeks.
French President Emmanuel Macron met yesterday at the Élysée Palace with Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and her ministers to discuss the situation and try to restore calm in the country, while France’s image deteriorates abroad. However, neither Macron nor the government announced new measures in the face of the chaos that reigns in the country.
Macron asked his ministers yesterday to “continue to do everything to restore order and ensure a return to calm.” The head of state will receive this Monday the presidents of the Senate and the National Assembly and on Tuesday more than 220 mayors of towns that have suffered violent acts during the riots. “The government must continue to be at the side of the police, gendarmes, magistrates, court clerks, firefighters and elected officials mobilized day and night for five days,” Macron said, according to participants in the meeting quoted by the French press. Some 150 town halls or municipal buildings have been attacked in the riots, according to the Association of French Mayors.
For his part, Jordan Bardella, president of National Reunion and right-hand man of the far-right Marine Le Pen said that “insecurity is a poison that undermines France inside and the image of France abroad.” Bardella considers that the riots give “a catastrophic image” of the country internationally, two months after the start of the Rugby World Cup and a year after the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Bardella assured that if his party wins the elections in 2027 they will restore Republican order “in every square meter of the national territory” and that immigration control will be “an absolute priority.”
Macron spoke yesterday by phone with Vincent Jeanbrun, mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses, whose family home was attacked on the night of Saturday to Sunday. The head of state also spoke with the mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan. Marseille, France’s second city, has been the scene of violence and looting that forced the government to send police and gendarmerie reinforcements on Saturday to try to restore order.
The Ministry of the Interior denied yesterday that the French government had decided to temporarily restrict internet access in certain neighborhoods during the night, as claimed by a false press release from the National Police circulating on social networks. “This document is false. No decision has been made in this regard,” the Interior Ministry clarified on Twitter.
Nahel’s grandmother
Nadia, Nahel’s grandmother, yesterday called for calm after five nights of violence throughout the country. “To people who are breaking things, I say stop. They are using Nahel as an excuse. We don’t want them to destroy storefronts, buses and schools. We want those young people to stay calm,” she said in a statement to BFMTV.
Nahel is dead. My daughter had only one child. She has lost it. She’s over. My daughter no longer has a life,” said Nahel’s grandmother, who showed her “confidence in justice” so that the policeman who shot her grandson is convicted of what she has done.
The mayor of Nanterre, Patrick Jarry, also called on the inhabitants of his town to respect the wishes of Nahel’s family and end the violence. Nahel was buried on Saturday in an intimate ceremony in the cemetery of this town where he lived with his mother.
Deputy Éric Ciottti, president of Los Republicanos (moderate right), called for “national unity at this time.” “We need unity to establish the republican order,” he added in a television interview.
Ciotti condemned “the will to destroy” of the rioters who attack the symbols of the Republic and who challenge it with “their violence” and “their barbarity.” The conservative leader reiterated his support for the police and gendarmes who are facing this strong wave of violence. “Attacking the municipal police, attacking municipal premises is attacking the symbols of the Republic that express authority and rule,” said the president of Los Republicanos, Nicolas Sarkozy’s party.
Scholz conveys confidence
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was yesterday “concerned” by the unrest in France, but also expressed confidence in Macron. “I am totally convinced that the French Head of State will find a way to make the situation improve quickly,” he said in statements to the German public television channel ARD. “It is inadmissible that these acts of violence occur,” added Scholz.
Three months after being forced to postpone King Charles III’s state visit to France over violent protests against pension reform, Macron has had to postpone his state visit to Germany due to riots that have broken out across the country. Scholz said that he understood that Macron preferred to stay in France given the situation in the country. “I would have done the same,” said the German chancellor.
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