Violence in France | The attack on a mayor’s house provokes shock

(Nanterre) The violent car-ram attack which targeted the home of the mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses (Val-de-Marne) provoked unanimous indignation in France on Sunday, while the grandmother of the young Nahel, whose death sparked five consecutive nights of rioting, called for calm.

The shock caused by the attack on the elected representative of this usually quiet town of 30,000 inhabitants in the southern suburbs of Paris has pushed into the background the decline in violence observed during the fifth night in a row in many cities of France.

“We will not let anything pass, we will be alongside the mayors”, promised Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne when she came to support Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun in her city. The government will “not allow any violence to pass” and will take sanctions with “the greatest firmness”, she added.

In a context of resurgence of attacks targeting elected officials, the president of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) David Lisnard called on the population to gather at all town halls on Monday at noon.

The boss of the AMF told AFP of “150 town halls or municipal buildings attacked since Tuesday, a first in the history of the country”.

President Emmanuel Macron, who did not immediately react to the attack, must take stock of the situation at the Élysée at 7:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. Eastern time) with several members of his government.

The facts took place around 1:30 a.m., when a ram-car filled with incendiary products entered the enclosure of the home of the first magistrate of L’Haÿ-les-Roses, who was then in his town hall.

“Assassination attempt”

The family’s front gate and car were burned. “The first findings let us assume that the vehicle was launched to burn the flag”, detailed the prosecutor of the Republic of Créteil Stéphane Hardouin, denouncing facts of “extreme seriousness”.

The magistrate announced the opening of an investigation for “attempted assassination”, entrusted to the judicial police.

While fleeing with her two children aged five and seven, Mr. Jeanbrun’s wife fractured her tibia, according to the prosecutor. “Last night, a milestone was crossed in horror and ignominy,” reacted the mayor.

In his suburban neighborhood of Blondeaux, residents and passers-by were outraged. “A red line has been crossed”, deplores Dorin, a 38-year-old Romanian who did not wish to give his surname for fear of “reprisals”.

“There was a tragedy (with the death of Nahel, editor’s note), but the policeman is indicted (and imprisoned, editor’s note), I do not understand that it continues”, lamented Joanna, a 42-year-old teacher neighbor of the mayor’s residence.

On Sunday, Nahel’s grandmother appealed to the young rioters for calm. “Let them not break the windows, let them not break the schools, not the buses,” urged Nadia on BFMTV. “Stop, it’s moms who take the buses […] We want these young people to stay calm.

Tired and devastated, she asked that the policeman who killed the shot pay for his gesture “like everyone else”, ensuring that she had “trust in justice”.

The night from Saturday to Sunday was calmer than the previous one, both in Paris and its suburbs and in Marseille and Lyon, the two cities most affected the day before by the clashes, destruction and ransacking of public buildings and looting of shops.

Gérald Darmanin, however, renewed a system of 45,000 police and gendarmes throughout the territory for the night from Sunday to Monday.

The Minister of the Interior also renewed his “firmness instructions” and asked “that arrests be carried out, as soon as possible”, according to his entourage.

“Vigilance”

According to the ministry, 719 people were arrested overnight from Saturday to Sunday, including 315 in Paris and the inner suburbs. The night before, law enforcement had made more than 1,300 arrests.

In addition, 45 police officers and gendarmes were injured. Two police officers were thus hit in Paris “by what could be similar to lead shots”, according to a police source, and one of their colleagues, targeted in Nîmes by a firearm shot, was protected by his bulletproof vest.

Seized by an amateur video that contradicted the initial story given by the police, the point-blank shooting of a biker and the death of Nahel during a road check in Nanterre shocked all the way to the top of the State, set the country and resonated well beyond the French borders.

Several European countries, including Britain, have updated their travel advice advising them not to travel to areas affected by the violence. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was “concerned” about the riots in France on Sunday.

The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire recorded on Saturday more than 700 lootings in four nights of unrest: 200 retail chains attacked and looted – including 15 burned down –, 250 tobacconists but also 250 bank branches, shops of all sizes, fast food establishments.

This wave of violence and the anger of many young residents of working-class neighborhoods against the police or the state recalled the riots that shook France in 2005, after the death of two teenagers pursued by the police.