45,000 police forces mobilized two nights in a row on July 13 and 14, the government is doing everything to avoid a resurgence of violence. It is the angst of the executive.
Any new violence would once again hamper the executive in its attempt to end the crisis, while the 100 days have already been hit by riots. VSIt would also contradict the government’s discourse on the return of order, erected for the moment as the first and only response to the riots. EFinally, it would undermine the image of a government that is in control of events.
It is no coincidence that Emmanuel Macron, from Vilnius on Wednesday July 12, felt obliged to clarify that there had been no riots in France in recent days. The reality is that this semblance of order is not a given, and that power is feverish, because the context is fragile.
No speech by Emmanuel Macron
It is indeed difficult to comply with the traditional July 14 interview in the context. Imagine the president calling for harmony, when cars are burning in the street. The benefits of this speaking out would be immediately erased.
And then if Emmanuel Macron does not speak, it is also that he has nothing to say. This is not the least of the paradoxes, for a president who is never stingy with comments in times of crisis: Covid, “Yellow Vests”, retirements, he has even been criticized for it. But today, Emmanuel Macron says he wants to understand first. When right and extreme right make the link between immigration and violence, “Things are more complicated than Pavlovian reflexes would like to say”, replies the president. Gérald Darmanin had pointed to the presence of “Kevin” and “Matteo” among the rioters.
Paradox
On the one hand Emmanuel Macron says he wants to undertake in-depth work to analyze this violence, and at the same time he refuses to react to it, as if he wanted to step over it, move on to something else before expressing himself or reorganizing his government, even if it means fueling a feeling of hesitation.
And when we speak with the president’s entourage, the priorities are the same as after the sequence of retirements: republican order, progress, school, health, full employment… Emmanuel Macron has also remained straight in his balance sheet: the riots are not the effect of an under-investment in the neighborhoods or in education, he decided. In fact, it’s a bit as if the president was less concerned with the causes of the crisis than with its consequences: the exasperation of the French and a potential rise of the National Rally.