French President Emmanuel Macron held a meeting on Tuesday, July 4, with officials and mayors from 250 towns hit by the recent social outbreak over the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old boy, at the hands of a police officer. A fact that unleashed the fury of thousands who denounce abuse of authority with racial overtones. The president assured that the peak of the riots has passed, after the seventh night of protests with 72 arrests, half of the previous day.
President Emmanuel Macron announced on July 4 an urgent law aimed at reconstruction after a week of violent riots throughout France.
“We are going to present an emergency law to crush all the delays, have an accelerated procedure to rebuild much faster,” said the president. This Tuesday, July 4,
Macron also called for a “return to republican order” after a week of violent riots across France following the death of a 17-year-old boy at the hands of a police officer.
The president’s statements came amid a meeting at the Élysée Palace with around 250 mayors of municipalities and towns that suffered damage amid consecutive nights of violent protests.
The social outbreak – which has been recorded since June 27 when a policeman lethally shot a teenager at point-blank range during a traffic stop, andn Nanterre, on the outskirts of Paris– It has triggered scenes of destruction of buildings, looting and burning of vehicles in the streets of several cities. Between them, Marseille and Toulouse, in the south, Lyon, in the east, and Lille, in the north and the French capital.
The death of the young man, identified as 17-year-old Nohel, has once again put the discussions on alleged acts of abuse of power with racial overtones on the table.
Against this backdrop, Macron noted that the meeting was aimed at “beginning the detailed and long-term work necessary to understand the deeper reasons” why the country plunged into fiery riots.
But the president also showed his disagreement with the violent expressions and during the meeting he proposed fines for the parents of minors involved in acts of vandalism or robberies.
“We have to find a way to economically penalize families,” said the head of state, according to comments collected by the newspaper ‘Le Parisien’.
Meanwhile, some companies are assessing the damage caused to their facilities amid the riots, which have left countless shops and other places of commerce destroyed.
“They destroyed everything (…) None of this is our work, we are just working people who get up at five in the morning to be able to feed our children and families,” Alexandre Manchon, who works in a tobacconist’s shop in the southern city of Marseille, which has suffered some of the worst looting in years.
Protest arrests drop
Macron’s meeting with officials from all over the country took place at a time when the authorities highlighted that in the early hours of this Tuesday, July 4, arrests in the context of the riots decreased.
72 people were arrested in the last 24 hours24 of them in and around Paris, the Interior Ministry confirmed.
These are almost half the number of arrests compared to those of the previous night, and a significantly lower figure after more than 800 arrests were recorded on some days, as occurred on June 30, considered one of the most violent days. of the mobilizations.
However, the authorities also reported the burning of more than 150 vehicles and dozens of garbage containers overnight.
“Is it a permanent return to calm? I will be cautious, but the peak that we have seen in previous days has already passed (…) We all want a lasting republican order,” Macron stressed at the meeting.
For her part, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said that “almost 4,000 people have been detained” since the riots broke out, including 350 who remain under arrest.
“I can confirm, Mr. President, as we mentioned yesterday, that the Minister of Justice is asking in particular that criminal sanctions be imposed on parents who let their 12, 13, 14-year-old children out at night, who set our town halls on fire, our police stations. The criminal response is there, harsh penalties have been imposed, including a prison order. There are already 350 people arrested,” said Borne.
Collection of money for detained policeman causes outrage in some quarters
An online collection of money for the family of the 38-year-old policeman, arrested for being the alleged person responsible for shooting and causing the death of Nahel, arouses rejection from the left in France.
The initiative, launched by far-right figure Jean Messiha, has raised more than €1.4 million.
“A young Arab is worth killing,” Manon Aubry, a member of the European Parliament for the far-left France Unsubmissive party, wrote ironically.
The French prime minister also expressed her discomfort with the initiative, assuring that it does not “help to calm the situation.”
A fund to support the Nahel family amounts to around 346,000 euros.
Meanwhile, the Police indicated that they questioned one of the passengers of the car driven by Nahel, to obtain more information about the exact circumstances of the event that has aroused widespread indignation in French territory.
With Reuters and AFP
