(Paris) The de-escalation seems to be confirmed in France. Monday evening was calm on the front of urban violence, on the eve of a political takeover where Emmanuel Macron is to receive this Tuesday the mayors of some 220 municipalities “victims of abuse” across the country.
What there is to know
- On June 27, a 17-year-old boy, Nahel, was killed by a police officer during a traffic check in Nanterre.
- The circumstances of his death aroused emotion and anger in Nanterre and in France as a whole, which experienced several nights of riots.
- Since the start of the violence, 3,200 people have been arrested, a third of whom are minors.
- On the night of 1er on July 2, the house of the mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses (in the southern suburbs of Paris) was attacked with a ramming car, while his wife was there with their two children.
- Justice has opened an investigation for “attempted murder”.
- On Monday, rallies were held outside town halls across France to denounce the violence and call for a return to republican order.
With this consultation of local elected officials, the president “wishes to begin meticulous and longer-term work to understand in depth the reasons which led to these events”, indicated the Elysée.
Monday was marked by numerous rallies across France in support of the mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses, Vincent Jeanbrun, the day after the ram attack on his home in this town in the Val -de-Marne.
First trip since the start of the crisis, Emmanuel Macron went in the middle of the evening with his Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to the Bessières barracks, in the XVIIe district of the capital, which hosts the staff of the Anti-Crime Brigade (BAC) at night and departmental intervention companies.
In the process, after midnight, he went to the Paris police headquarters, for new exchanges, then specified the Elysée.
The executive asked to maintain “a massive presence” on “the ground”, “to reinforce the return to calm and order”, his entourage told AFP.
Later that night, the head of state thanked the police, gendarmes and firefighters in a tweet for their “exceptional mobilization in recent nights”. “I know how difficult these have been for you and your families. You have my support, ”wrote Emmanuel Macron on Twitter.
The night system of the previous days, i.e. a maximum staff of 45,000 police and gendarmes, was thus maintained overnight from Monday to Tuesday, without any major incident recorded in the evening.
The number of arrests in Île-de-France fell on Monday evening, as on previous nights: 5 to 11:30 p.m. against around forty the day before and more than 400 last Thursday.
“I didn’t think about it”
These nocturnal riots broke out on June 27, the day of the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old teenager shot at point-blank range by a police motorcyclist, following a refusal to comply in Nanterre. The scene was captured on amateur video.
According to figures sent to AFP by the Ministry of Justice, since Friday, 3,915 people have been arrested (including 1,244 minors), giving rise to 374 immediate appearances.
PHOTO VALERY HACHE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Demonstration in Nice, Sunday evening
In Strasbourg, firm prison sentences ranging from four to ten months were pronounced during these hearings.
“It was an opportunistic theft: it was broken, I didn’t think about it, I entered”, explained to the court Rayane, 26, who came out of a Zara store “with a large package of clothes under his arm “.
The main French employers’ organizations for their part called on the government on Monday to put in place support measures for the traders and entrepreneurs affected, in particular a “relief fund” for “those who have lost everything”.
The damage is estimated by the boss of bosses, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, at one billion euros.
“Not to mention the damage to tourism. The videos of the riots, which circulated around the world, degrade the image of France,” said the leader of the Mouvement des entreprises de France in the Parisian.
And in Île-de-France, it’s also time for the first assessment: the riots caused “at least 20 million euros in damage” for public transport, from burnt buses to broken street furniture, according to a first estimate. Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM).
Controversial kitty
On the side of the investigation, the third occupant of the car driven by Nahel, 17, whose death caused by the shooting of a policeman sparked a wave of urban violence throughout the country, was heard Monday by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), AFP learned from a source familiar with the matter.
PHOTO JULIEN DE ROSA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The third passenger in the car driven by Nahel was questioned by the police on Monday in Paris.
Wanted since the incident, this man presented himself at 11 a.m. to the “police of police”.
The policeman who fired the shot that killed Nahel has been indicted for intentional homicide and is still imprisoned.
A kitty of support for the agent exceeded Monday on the internet the million euros, raising the indignation of elected officials on the left.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne considered that it does not “contribute to appeasement” and added that it would be up to justice to decide, “if necessary”, on the legality of this solidarity fund.