The French authorities are alarmed by the frequency of episodes of extreme youth violence, sometimes resulting in death, and are prepared to take drastic measures to curb it. One of these measures is the adoption in some cities of a curfew for minors, a severe limitation of freedom that could be extended to other conflicting cities.
Youth curfews have been used occasionally in the past to respond to emergency situations, such as during the serious riots in the Paris suburbs in 2005. Now they are being brought up again with less taboos. It was the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who decided the measure, in force since Monday, in Pointe-à-Pitre, the capital of the archipelago of Guadeloupe, a French department in the Caribbean. The mayor of the city, a left-wing environmentalist, claimed it.
On Tuesday it was the turn of the mayor of Besiers (Occitanie), Robert Ménard, founder of Reporters without Borders and close to the extreme right, who was re-elected by an overwhelming majority in 2020. Unlike Guadeloupe, where the touch curfew affects those younger than 18 between eight in the evening and five in the morning, in the southern French city it applies to those younger than 13 – between eleven at night and six in the morning – who live in center and in some particularly sensitive neighborhoods. These children can only leave the house at these times if they are accompanied by a parent.
The mayor of Nice, the centre-right Christian Estrosi, an ally of President Emmanuel Macron, will also soon apply a similar curfew. The mayor of Perpignan, Louis Aliot, vice-president of Reagrupament Nacional, Le Pen’s party, is also thinking about it.
According to Ménard, the curfew is applauded by many mothers in the affected neighborhoods, who often raise their children alone and cannot control them running away and walking the streets. The support of mothers has also been seen in Guadeloupe.
Youth gangs, with revenge that ends in homicide, or simple beatings for seemingly banal reasons, are becoming a scourge. Recently there have been two dramatic cases in which the French press has spoken of lynching. The Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, traveled last week to Viry-Châtillon, a suburb in the south of Paris, scene of one of the latest dramas, to denounce “the addiction of some teenagers to violence”. Attal called for a “general mobilization” against the phenomenon and “a strong strengthening of the authority”.
Youth curfews are controversial. Besiers tried the measure in 2014 and the Council of State annulled it, but Ménard assures that the experience was positive. The General Code of Territorial Communities (municipalities) includes an article that authorizes a curfew ordinance to guarantee “good order, public safety and health”. However, the application of the rule does not please everyone and is appealable.
