2023-07-03 04:00:00
The attack on the home of the mayor of a Parisian suburb sparked outrage in France after five consecutive nights of riots, sparked by the death at the hands of police of a teenager, whose grandmother called on Sunday to stop the violence.
France has been experiencing a social upheaval since the publication of the video of the death of Nahel, who died on Tuesday from a point-blank shot by an agent during a traffic control in Nanterre, near Paris.
One of the most serious incidents of these days occurred in a small town in L’Haÿ les Roses, in the suburbs of Paris, where a burning car crashed early Sunday morning into the home of its mayor, Vincent Jeanbrun, of the conservative party the Republicans.
The shock caused by the attack has relegated to the background the decrease in violence observed during the night from Saturday to Sunday in many cities in France and which seemed to continue its downward trajectory on Sunday in the early afternoon.
At 11:30 p.m., the police had made 49 arrests throughout the national territory, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
To try to contain the crisis, President Emmanuel Macron will meet on Monday with the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate, announced a participant in the meeting held on Sunday by the head of state with several of his ministers.
Then, on Tuesday, Macron will receive the mayors of “more than 220 municipalities” affected by the riots and looting in recent days, the same source added.
“A milestone in horror and ignominy has been reached,” denounced Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun. “They wanted to burn the house down” and when “they realized someone was inside, far from stopping, they launched a batch of pyrotechnic mortars,” he told TF1 television channel.
The wife and one of the two small children of the mayor of L’Haÿ les Roses were slightly injured when they escaped from the house.
The prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for “attempted homicide”.
Another mayor was attacked in Charly, a town south of Lyon (central-east). According to the mayor’s office, a device “unequivocally” intended to cause a fire was found in his house on Sunday morning.
According to the president of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), David Lisnard, “150 city halls or municipal buildings have been attacked” since Tuesday. The AMF called a rally on Monday at noon in front of town halls across the country.
– ‘Trust in justice’ –
Ten police stations, ten gendarmerie barracks and six municipal police stations were attacked during the early hours of Sunday and produced 719 arrests throughout the country, slightly less than half the day before, indicated the Ministry of the Interior.
“Enough, stop vandalizing,” asked the young Nahel’s grandmother on Sunday, interviewed by BFMTV, a day after her grandson’s funeral in Nanterre.
“That they do not break shop windows, that they do not destroy schools, buses… it is mothers who use the bus,” he insisted.
“I blame the two policemen (…) who gave my grandson two blows to the head, and the one who shot him directly in the heart, (because) he could have shot him in the leg, in the arm” and he did not, lamented Nahel’s grandmother, assuring that, however, he has “confidence in justice.”
The 38-year-old author of the fatal shot has been in custody since Tuesday, accused of voluntary manslaughter.
– Concern abroad –
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin ordered the deployment of 45,000 police officers and gendarmes throughout the country on Sunday for the third night in a row.
In Paris and Marseille, the police deployed important security devices in central areas.
And in an attempt to stop the spiral of violence, many French municipalities imposed a curfew and banned buses and trams from 9:00 p.m.
Macron, who on Saturday decided to postpone his state visit to Germany, is experiencing his second major crisis in a few months after the demonstrations against the pension reform.
The head of the German government, Olaf Scholz, declared himself “concerned” this Sunday, although he was “totally convinced that the French head of state will find the means for the situation to improve quickly.”
Violence in France, which will host the Rugby World Cup this year and the Olympic Games in 2024, worries abroad.
Several countries advised their citizens not to travel to areas affected by violence.
Violence and anger Young people from popular neighborhoods remember the riots that shook France in 2005, after the death of two teenagers pursued by the police.
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