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President Emmanuel Macron and his top ministers are set to meet Sunday night to respond to the unrest that has rocked France after a fifth night of looting and rioting sparked by the fatal police shooting of a teenager.
Macron is due to discuss the crisis with ministers including Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and Justice Minister Eric Dupond Moretti.
Paris authorities are set to deploy an additional 7,000 police to the capital on Sunday after the home of the mayor of the Les Roses suburb was attacked Saturday night, agencies reported.
“The line has been crossed,” Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said of the attack, speaking on BFM television.
Burney, who traveled with Darmanin, described the attacks on the mayors as “intolerable”. The head of the union of mayors told AFP that around 150 town halls or town halls have been attacked across France in recent days.
However, the French government said that the violent scenes that have erupted in towns and cities since the killing of Nahl, a 17-year-old of North African descent, by police five days ago, have subsided compared to the previous days.
“Calmest night thanks to the firm action of the police,” Darmanin wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
Central Paris was functioning normally on Sunday despite the unrest, although a host of events have been canceled in recent days. Luxury group LVMH said it was canceling the menswear offering of its high-end brand, Céline.
About 719 arrests were made on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, compared to 1,311 cases on Friday, and the number of fires decreased by more than half, according to the ministry.
Unrest in Marseille, France on July 1, 2023 © Reuters
Unrest in Marseille, France on July 1, 2023
About 50 of the 45,000 police deployed across France to quell the riots were injured, a much smaller number than in the previous nights.
The police reinforcements included units specializing in urban violence. Armoredos were deployed to Marseille and Lyon, where looting in the city center was particularly bad. Police also closed off the Champs-Elysées in Paris in an attempt to prevent looting of luxury stores.
Nael, whose last name has not been released, was shot and killed by police after being detained at a traffic point.
A private funeral was held for him on Saturday at a hilltop cemetery in Nanterre where he used to live, and a ceremony was held at a nearby mosque.
Nadia, the deceased boy’s grandmother, on Sunday called for calm and told BFM TV: “People who are rioting, I’m telling them to stop.”
This is the third wave of violent protests Macron has faced since his election as president in 2017, after Yellow jackets The movement that began in 2018 over a proposed fuel tax and a series of protests this year over his unpopular pension reform.
The president had to cancel a state visit to Germany to focus on his government’s response.
The fatal shooting of Nael sparked outrage that exacerbated tensions between police and youth across the country. The riots particularly affected areas populated by minorities and immigrants, who face racial profiling by police and discrimination in housing and employment opportunities, according to official studies.
The protests quickly escalated after a video of the incident was posted on social media, and no apparent direct threat was shown to the two officers who were trying to stop the young man’s car.
One of the officers involved has been charged with initial murder and is in pre-trial detention, a rare step in such cases in France.
In Nanterre, a demographically mixed area that includes the La Défense business district and the large high-rise buildings of social housing, normal life continued as residents went about their daily routines and dined on sunny café terraces.
“I support the Nahil family, but I am against violence and breaking things,” said Yemid Bensoussan, a waiter at a local restaurant. “Most people here feel that way.”
