2023-07-03 04:00:00
After intense protests over the pension reform, President Emmanuel Macron asked for 100 days to “appease” France and it is just July 14. However, he did not achieve the goal and now the country has five consecutive days of riots accompanied by destruction in the Parisian periphery and other cities.
(Read also: Demonstrations in France: they try to assassinate a mayor and his family)
It all started with the death of Nahel M., a 17-year-old boy who was shot by the police. A 38-year-old agent shot the teenager of Algerian origin, a student at the Louis Blériot high school and hoping to obtain a certificate as an electrician, in the chest while trying to evade a checkpoint
It was not the first time that the young man had problems with the police authorities, but he was not reviewed. The moment of the shot was captured in a video, which unleashed the anger of the inhabitants of the suburbs or banlieues – as popular neighborhoods in France on the periphery of cities are known – who constantly face police abuse and race and gender stigmas, according to local media.
And that is precisely one of the concerns not only of the international community but of organizations and citizens: the constant action of the police against minorities.
There is an unacceptable instrumentalization of the death of a teenager when the period should be one of meditation and respect. pic.twitter.com/6QAbUfPLkf
—Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 30, 2023
“This is a time for the country to seriously address the deep-rooted issues of racism and discrimination in law enforcement and law enforcement,” the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement.
But the protests escalated and to put what is happening in perspective, in numbers the situation goes like this: 45,000 police officers and gendarmes deployed throughout the country, more than 2,000 arrests, 45 police officers injured, 577 vehicles and 74 buildings set on fire, and more than 800 fires on the roads.
Although the country has negative figures in terms of police action, for example, in 2022, according to the Efe agency, 13 deaths were reported in police checkpoints. And to go further back, in 2005 the death of two migrant adolescents by the police also sparked serious protests, this without counting what happened with the so-called ‘yellow vests’ and other isolated incidents.
It is not the youth against Macron. These are minority movements and, in fact, barely political
Now the riots have even spread to Belgium and Switzerland, with more than 40 arrested yesterday. Several groups protested against the death of Nahel and tried to disrupt public order, so it is worth asking if the disturbance goes beyond the actions of the police.
“It is not the youth against Macron. These are minority movements and, in fact, barely political,” Jérôme Sainte-Marie, a political scientist and consultant, told EL TIEMPO, who emphasized that this situation represents a crisis for the president’s government, because “Macron seems to have lost confidence of all the popular classes, that of deep France, as well as those coming from recent immigration”.
Even so, the riots are not popular nor do they have the acceptance of the citizenship.
In fact, most of them are minors who are leading the destruction, even the president has called on parents to take “responsibility” for their children, this due to the burning of schools and government buildings.
(It may interest you: At least 667 detainees on the third night of riots in France)
So, it seems that you have to look deep into the banlieues. The majority of migrants from Africa and the Middle East are concentrated there. Public opinion has contributed to stigmatizing these areas, where poverty reigns and segregation, racism and growing extremism fueled by religion are felt.
A third of those arrested last night are young people, sometimes very young. I call parents to responsibility.
—Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 30, 2023
Many of these young people, although born in France, do not feel French and this has generated the rise and influence of “decolonial” currents, which could be one of the causes of the continued violence. Even ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy himself, during his tenure, spoke of what it meant to be French?, a debate that was not so helpful at the time.
Gilles Finchelstein, from the Jean Jaurès Foundation, told EL TIEMPO that beyond the political crisis and the challenges Macron is facing, “if things calm down, the political traces may not be so deep; on the other hand, the questions that are raised about society and youth are very profound”.
In this the political scientist Jérôme Sainte-Marie agrees, who considers that the French youth is divided. “A large part of it, outside the metropolises, vote for Marine Le Pen, another has rather chosen Jean-Luc Mélenchon (radical left) and among the rich young people, confident in their future, there is also a Macron vote”, so he insists that the problem goes further and that the “rioters” do not represent the entire youth conglomerate.
“Order will be restored, but after the yellow vest movement in 2018 and various violent environmental or social demonstrations, the impression in public opinion is very bad,” says Sainte-Marie, referring to what he has described as ” the weakening of the authority of the State in the territory”.
(Read also: Macron calls a crisis meeting after the third night of riots in France)
The concern seems to be not only about the actions of the police, which are often far from respecting integrity, but about the use of extremist groups and their influence on young people.
The spokesman for the Government of France, Olivier Véran, asked not to generalize the police action, he also promised that the investigations would be carried out.
Nahel has already been buried, but his family continues to demand justice.
ANA MARIA RODRIGUEZ BRAZON
WEATHER CORRESPONDENT
CARACAS
1688389757
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