The revolt in France is not extinguished. The fourth consecutive night of riots, between Friday and Saturday, took place especially in Marseille, the second most populous city in the country and the most violent, where there is already an endemic context of organized crime and constant settling of scores between gangs of very young dealers According to a police union leader, an “apocalyptic” situation was experienced in the capital of Provence, out of control, with many looting of shops and burning of vehicles and street furniture.
“Chaos”, headlined the main Marseille newspaper, La Provence. The newspaper recalled that those who thought that Marseille could remain a bit untouched by the riots in the rest of France were mistaken because the local drug lords, very powerful for decades, are not interested in disorder or the massive presence of police on the streets because it interferes with their lucrative business. The sociologist Michel Wievorka, interviewed by the newspaper, gave his own explanation: “You can be a trafficker one day and socially committed the other. It is not incompatible. When there is such an accumulation of anger, it is not certain that the drug trade prevents young people from acting violently”.
The balance of the new day of rage unleashed by the death of a teenager in Nanterre, last Tuesday, by a police shot, was 1,311 people arrested, many of them minors, and 79 police officers injured, according to data from the Ministry of Interior.
The severity of the crisis is of such magnitude that President Emmanuel Macron was forced to postpone a state trip to Germany scheduled for the next three days.
Despite the deployment of 45,000 police, including elite units and heavy armored vehicles such as tanks, the insurrection continued its course. Paris and its metropolitan area were affected – less than in previous days -, Lyon, Lens, Metz, Strasbourg, Mulhouse and other cities. Marseille, which had been relatively quiet for the first three nights, turned into hell. The looting was intense, right in the center, including the most emblematic avenue, La Canebière. Groups of young people attacked stores of all kinds and numerous tobacconists. It was even seen, thanks to a video that circulated on social networks, individuals firing Kalashnikov rifles. That indicates members of organized crime may have infiltrated the riots. In Marseille and Nîmes, armories were robbed. In Vaulx-en-Velin, seven policemen were injured by pellet shots.
It so happens that Macron had just spent three days in Marseille, his favorite city, to oversee his ambitious plan to rehabilitate schools, homes and other infrastructure. The city is a frequent protagonist of the chronicles of events due to the settling of accounts –23 dead so far this year– between the drug clans.
The French president, one of the democratic heads of state with the most constitutional powers, is not free to comply with his agenda. In a statement from the Élysée it was announced that the decision to postpone the three-day trip to the Federal Republic of Germany was taken after Macron held a conversation with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. “Given the internal situation, the President of the Republic (Macron) has indicated that he wanted to be able to stay in France for the next few days,” said the released text. The two presidents have therefore agreed to postpone the visit to Germany to a later date.
Macron had to travel to Ludwigsburg, where the Franco-German Institute is located, to Berlin and Dresden. In this last Saxon city, devastated by Allied bombing during World War II, he had to deliver an important speech in the context of the conflict in Ukraine. The visit was to take place at a sensitive time of friction between Paris and Berlin over various issues, including the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO.
It is already the second time in a few months that public disorder has forced Macron to postpone a relevant diplomatic appointment. In March, the first visit of the new King of England, Charles III, had to be canceled due to demonstrations against the pension reform. The British monarch had chosen France for his first official trip abroad since he succeeded his mother, Elizabeth II. It was an embarrassing situation for Paris, though an unavoidable one. Charles III did visit Germany. The King of England could finally make the trip to France in September.
The drastic decision to change the agenda, no less than with France’s main partner in the European Union, shows the concern with which the Elysée is experiencing the current crisis. Macron’s stay in Paris is an indication that more far-reaching measures could be taken to stop the revolt. Although the Government is reluctant to declare a state of emergency, circumstances could force it to review this position.
These days Macron’s speeches on the immigration ghettos in France and the danger engendered by “the concentration of educational and economic difficulties in some neighborhoods of the Republic” are remembered. It is a problem that has been dragging on for decades but, despite State investments, it has not been able to be overcome. Le Monde speaks of an “explosive generation” of young minors who act with great coordination and exaltation thanks to social networks.
Sometimes the term “lost territories of the Republic” has been used. The Prime Minister of the Interior of the Macron era, Gérard Collomb, invented the category of “republican reconquest neighborhoods”. But when he left office in October 2018, he issued a stern warning that serious problems persisted and posed a serious medium-term threat to the stability of the State.
In Nanterre, the funerals of Nahel, the 17-year-old boy who died on Tuesday by a policeman shooting at a checkpoint, took place. Hundreds of people gathered at the funeral home, where access to the press was strictly prohibited. Later there was a death prayer in the Ibn Badis mosque and later the burial of the body in the Mont Valérien cemetery, at the foot of the hill of the same name, a scene full of tragic history. His fortress served as a prison and execution site for resistance members captured by the German occupiers during World War II.
