Since the shooting death of a 17-year-old named Nahel in the Paris suburb of Nanterre earlier this week by French police, France has seen rioting and unrest spread from the suburbs of the French capital to cities across the country.
On the second night of riots on Thursday, June 29th, at least 917 people were arrested, according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, and around 249 police officers were reportedly injured as a result of clashes, with fires being lit across the country. In one case, rioters attempted to light the city hall of Clichy-sous-Bois ablaze.
Violence also took place in the southern French city of Marseille where a mob of rioters were able to positively identify two off-duty police officers and savagely beat them, causing serious injuries to both officials, Le Figaro reports.
The two officers were travelling by car when they were stopped by a garbage bin that had been set on fire in the 1st district of the city and were surrounded by a group of around twenty people.
According to the newspaper, one of the officers suffered a fractured jaw and the other officer was stabbed. Neither is reported in life-threatening condition, however.
Interior Minister Darmanin slammed the incident saying, “They were molested, and beaten on the ground like dogs, there are no other words.” So far, no suspects have been arrested in connection with the brutal attack.
The French government deployed around 40,000 police on the streets of the country Thursday night to control the rioting and prevent arson and vandalism attacks, up from around 9,000 during the prior night.
During the violence, several public buildings were targeted in different areas of France, including a library in central Marseille and other buildings in the Paris suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis.
In one incident, rioters smashed the entrance to a shopping centre in Drancy, using a large truck to force open the doors.
Among French politicians, there has been wild disagreement on the rioting. French leftists, including far-left former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, have refused to call for calm or an end to the violence.
Mélenchon appeared on French media on Wednesday evening saying the police were “guard dogs calling for calm” and added, “I’m not calling for calm, I’m calling for justice.” He went on to suggest that “murderous police” should be hanged.
Éric Zemmour, the conservative political pundit and leader of the Reconquête party, expressed a much different view of the rioting, telling broadcaster Europe 1 that the riots were “a civil, ethnic, and racial war.”
The former presidential candidate went on to draw parallels to the devastating riots of 2005, which lasted for three weeks and saw nearly 3,000 arrests and around 8,000 to 9,000 vehicles destroyed. An estimated €200 million worth of damage was done to both schools and shops during the riots.
“In 2005, only the suburbs were affected. Now, the whole of France is affected, from Paris to small medium-sized towns. Why are they affected? Because for 20 years, we have distributed immigrants,” Zemmour said.
“It is the policy of distributing immigrants throughout France that means that all French people are affected today by these riots. All French people see that it is the product of crazy immigration for 40 years,” he added.
France’s territorial intelligence stated Thursday that they believe the rioting is likely to spread to even more areas as authorities fear that far-left extremist groups will seize the opportunity to add to the violence against police.
While President Macron has held emergency meetings and deployed a large number of police officers on the streets, a new survey released by broadcaster CNews suggests the French people are willing to go much further to restore order.
The poll, released by CSA and published on Friday, states that 70% of French people are in favour of sending the French Armed Forces onto the streets of neighbourhoods affected by rioting to restore order.
The poll is a significant increase from a March 2022 poll that asked the same question and found only 56% of the French public was in favour of military intervention. A further 70% said they favoured the government declaring a national state of emergency in response to the riots, something called for by several conservative politicians.
