France has been in crisis for almost a week after 17-year-old French girl of Algerian origin, Nahel Merzouk, was shot dead by a police officer.
On the morning of June 27, a patrol stopped a Mercedes for document control. The passengers and the driver refused to cooperate and he stepped on the gas pedal. One of the two officers fired and Nahel, who was behind the wheel, was killed instantly. Then came the shock. The incident took place in the deprived Parisian suburb of Nanterre, which has been densely populated by non-native French people for decades.
The massive riots that have swept through France have forced the government of the republic to take rather drastic measures. Recreational activities have been suspended in “dangerous areas” and public transport has been shut down at night. Curfews have also been imposed in some communities.
We are tempted to compare what is happening in France to the Black Lives Matter movement. In fact, the situation in France appears to be comparable to that in the United States: the police arrest a member of an ethnic minority, this person shows disobedience to the law enforcement officer, who abuses the powers granted to him by the state and The consequence: the representative of the ethnic minority dies on the spot.
However, the case of France is not so simple. Unlike the United States, the most “problematic” part of the population comes from the Maghreb countries, more precisely from Algeria. France has a long-standing love-hate relationship with the country, as Algeria fought for independence from French colonization from 1830 to 1962.
How France Treated Algeria
France, on the other hand, never treated Algeria as one of its colonies but as an integral part of the French Republic. Or almost, because this attitude has not spread to the Algerian people and their culture.
The massive exodus of Algerians to France began after World War II, when the country needed labor to rebuild its war-torn economy.
The number of Maghrebis began to grow rapidly, as did the banlieues or suburban areas in which they lived overall. Hence the distinctive culture of the Beurs, a derogatory French term for people born in Europe whose parents or grandparents are Maghreb immigrants.
The natives of North Africa were soon joined by natives of sub-Saharan Africa, mostly from the former French colonies. In the 1990s, the problem of the banlieues reached significant proportions. On the other hand, speaking publicly about the problems of the suburbs and the racism that was engulfing French society was unthinkable.
Poster of the film La heine (Hate in Spain). movie affinity
This taboo was broken by the then very young French director Mathieu Kassovitz with his now iconic film El Odio (1995). The film is based on a true story, that of Makome M’Bowole, a 17-year-old boy of Zairean descent who was shot dead by police two years earlier.
Portraying the lives of three young people from the suburbs: a Jew, a Moroccan and a sub-Saharan African, the film invites French society to reflect on the fact that hate is not the answer but something inherently destructive . “Hate attracts hate,” says Hubert, a young sub-Saharan man and one of the main protagonists of the film.
The lack of integration
Almost thirty years after the film, the French government tried to remedy the situation, but these attempts focused mainly on investing in infrastructure rather than integrating immigrants and their children into society.
For three generations, the children of the suburbs have lived with a hatred that they seem to feel against everything. Amid the protests, Laurent-Franck Liénard, the lawyer for the police officer who shot Nahel, reminded that his client charged with murder is awaiting trial in Paris’ La Santé prison. And he asked: “The policeman is in prison, what more do the demonstrators want?”
In the same speech, the lawyer responded to his own rhetorical question: “They don’t want justice, they express their anger.”
There is a great truth behind this if we look at the aims pursued by the protesters. These are public buildings that should serve them and their families, public transport, schools, kindergartens, restaurants and shops. The burned out bus station in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis) served the same suburbs that always complain of shortcomings.
It seems that second- or third-generation suburbanites express a hatred of anything traditionally seen as a sign of “normal” life.
Rioters don’t just express their anger: in recent days we’ve heard phrases like “soothe passions” and “find common ground” in TV talks and government statements. It is as if we are not speaking of members of the same society, of citizens of the same country, but of a foreign army.
In addition, this army is made up of youths between the ages of 14 and 18 and younger, which surprised the police. That is, the division now occurs not only along the demarcation lines already exploited by left and right (“native French”: descendants of immigrants, rich-poor, urban-suburbs), but also according to age groups and generations within the same neighborhood, community, family .
How do politicians see it?
Also, this situation is being fueled from within by politicians trying to profit from it. For example, the leftist Jean-Luc Melénchon called for peace, but appealed to the French police watchdogs and demanded justice.
Antoine Léaumant, an MEP from the same party, said: “The demonstrations are taking the form they want, the anger expressed is legitimate.”
For his part, the right-wing leader of the Reconquête party, Eric Zemmour (of North African descent, incidentally), warned Europe that France was on the brink of civil war.
Will all of this lead to significant upheavals in the French government in the short term? Unlikely. The protests taking place are typical of the French state, where freedom of expression often takes violent forms. In a way, society is used to them.
We also need to understand the French authorities: these spontaneous protests (unlike the Yellow Vests movement) have no leaders, so the authorities, even if they wanted to, have no one to negotiate with.
It seems the French authorities have decided to stick to their usual tactics: stand firm and wait until the rioters’ demands are finally compromised by their own behavior. And so far it seems so. But a society torn by such contradictions continues to crumble, and no one can predict what the outcome will be.