Nobody expected this fire now. France was unprepared for a new wave of unrest in its multicultural slums, and political power is reeling, overwhelmed by a movement that seems to be spiraling out of control.
Anger erupted in the banlieue following the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old teenager shot by a police officer on the outskirts of Paris on Tuesday, and since that day violence has spread geographically to the suburbs of Marseille, Lyon, Nantes and Toulouse. And it refers to symbols of the Republic and of authority, such as town halls and schools, buses and trams, shops and supermarkets, and above all the police.
A young man in his 20s died on Friday from his injuries after falling from the roof of a supermarket on the outskirts of Rouen in Normandy, Le Figaro reported. The fall happened “during a looting,” a police source said, although city prosecutors made it clear that no robbery of the business was taking place at the time.
For now, President Emmanuel Macron is ruling out the imposition of a state of emergency, which in many ways is equivalent to Spain’s state of emergency, as called for by the right and the extreme right. For another similarly troubling situation in the centers of power, one has to look back to the Yellow Vest uprising of 2018.
“We believe that in the current situation there is no need to enact this emergency law,” said an aide to the French president on Thursday, who asked not to be identified. “We think a gradual response is more appropriate,” he added.
The president’s response to the crisis, the largest in the periphery since the three-week riots in 2005, is summed up for the time being in an increase in security: 40,000 police officers and gendarmes on Thursday night throughout France, in addition to helicopters and drones ; 45,000 in the period from Friday to Saturday. Although the intensity of the riots was “lower”, the fourth night of protests saw 1,311 arrests and 79 police officers injured, according to the latest data from the Interior Ministry this Saturday. The night before ended with 875 detained and 249 agents injured.
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Macron, relieved after months of anti-pension reform protests ended, faces another unexpected crisis. On Friday he left the European Council in Brussels prematurely and hastily, without holding the usual press conference. Already in Paris, he chaired the crisis cabinet, which was attended by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and other important ministers, and made a brief televised statement.
The President announced the cancellation of the planned celebrations in the provinces most affected, as well as an increase in the resources of the police and gendarmerie, which since Friday evening were planning to use armored vehicles. He presented no significant measures, as if to wait and see. But he sent three messages. The first is a condemnation of violence and those who think they exploit it, along the lines of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left. “Nothing justifies violence,” he said.
Emmanuel Macron, this Friday at the Elíseo Palace. POOL (via Portal)
Second message: an appeal to the responsibility of fathers and mothers, since numerous young people and even children took part in the protests in the night from Thursday to Friday, according to some calculations up to a third of the participants. “It’s the responsibility of parents to make sure they stay home,” the president said. “The Republic has no calling to replace them.”
The third targets social networks to suppress messages that go viral inciting violence and to identify those responsible. “Sometimes,” he argued, “we get the impression that some people are living on the streets with the video games that got them high.”
However, the Élysée Palace avoids alarmism in its diagnosis. Macron’s advisers believe there are structural problems in the suburbs, but stress that the president has been taking action to address these issues for years. What worries these days, adds the aforementioned adviser, is above all safety: “The actions of a minority of fairly young people who commit crime, and the residents of the neighborhoods are the first victims.”
The images of burning vehicles and buildings broadcast day and night on television are startling. in front of the videos on social media of looting and firecrackers being fired at the police, of burning bank branches and occasionally of apartment buildings. There’s also a sense that things are getting out of control or could soon be, although the Élysée Palace insists: “The violence is concentrated in some areas, not all of France.”
Firefighters parked a bus during the riots in Nanterre this morning. MOHAMMED BADRA (EFE)
Violence is a horror for the vast majority of French people, but its meaning varies according to social background, ethnicity, place of residence or belief.
On the one hand, France, which in many cases votes right or far right, is the definitive proof that the country is in the abyss described in recent films such as Athena or Bac Nord, or in prophecies such as the writer’s Michel Houellebecq. . Éric Zemmour, a far-right candidate in the last presidential election and convicted of inciting racial hatred, says this is the prologue to a civil war, a diagnosis police unions Alliance Police and UNSA seem to share in a statement: “We are at war . Tomorrow we will be in resistance and the government needs to be aware of that.”
There is another part of the residents who point precisely to the police. It’s not just France: spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, said: “It’s time the country took a serious look at the deep-rooted problems of racism and racial discrimination in law enforcement.”
And there is a third France where life goes on as much, or almost: central Paris, the scene of so many open battles, was immune to the riots until early Friday morning when windows smashed and looted.
A few dozen onlookers gathered that morning in front of the looted Nike brand store in the central Forum des Halles in Paris, next to the Center Pompidou tourist hub. There were tourists taking selfies – demonstrations, riots are almost part of Parisian folklore – and also young people from the banlieue who, when they come to Paris, usually meet in the shopping centers or in the squares of this district.
“Destroying is pointless,” says a boy who traveled from the outskirts to have lunch with two friends. They are between 16 and 19 years old, they are French and black and they claim that the police do not treat them or the Arabs in the same way as white people. The death of Nahel, who was of North African descent, is evidence of this. For this reason, another of the boys points out: “It’s normal for people to rebel a bit”. And another adds: “We are French!” We also bring France to life! Not just the whites!”
A city worker walks past a smashed shop window during protests in Lyon this Saturday. OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE (AFP)
The funeral of the young Nahel will be celebrated this Saturday in Nanterre in a private setting so as not to aggravate the mood even further. The police officer who fired the shots was charged with involuntary manslaughter and jailed on Thursday. His lawyer told the media that he called the victim’s family and asked for forgiveness. His line of defense is that after seeing the boy disobey orders several times, he shot the car he was driving without permission to prevent him and the other agent accompanying him , or other persons ran over.
What will happen from now on? Will the 2005 riots last three weeks? Will they continue to spread? “It’s difficult to make predictions,” replies the aforementioned Élysée source. “There are many people calling for calm, we hope for a speedy return to calm.”
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