The mayors of France called on the population and elected officials to gather Monday at noon in front of all the town halls, invoking “a civic mobilization” after the violent attack on the home of the mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses (Val-de-Marne) which sparked outrage across the country.
All the town halls of France will sound their sirens at 12:00 p.m. during these gatherings, announced Sunday the president of the Association of mayors of France (AMF), David Lisnard.
In a press release calling on Sunday for “a civic mobilization of citizens for a return to republican order”, the AMF underlines that “since last Tuesday, (the) communes are everywhere in France the scene of serious unrest, which targets with a extreme violence against republican symbols such as town halls, schools, libraries, municipal police”.
The shock caused by the violent car-ram attack on the home of Vincent Jeanbrun, LR mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses (Val-de-Marne) caused great emotion in the country, where a return to calm however, took shape overnight from Sunday to Monday after five nights of riots following the death of Nahel, 17, killed by a police officer.
At 1:30 a.m., the police had carried out 78 arrests on national territory (compared to more than 400 the previous night), according to the Ministry of the Interior, and no major incident had been reported. In Paris and its inner suburbs, 20 people were arrested at 1 a.m. (2300 GMT), according to the police headquarters.
After the attack on Vincent Jeanbrun’s house, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne assured the mayors that the government “will not allow any violence to pass” and that “the greatest firmness” would be applied in the sanctions.
Emmanuel Macron is due to receive the presidents of the two assemblies also on Monday, then on Tuesday the mayors of more than 220 municipalities targeted by the violence. He also asked Elisabeth Borne to meet the presidents of the parliamentary groups on Monday.
The Head of State also wants to “begin meticulous and longer-term work to understand in depth the reasons that led to these events”, according to the Elysée.
In five nights of riots until Sunday morning, the Ministry of the Interior recorded some 5,000 vehicles burned, nearly 1,000 buildings burned or degraded, 250 attacks on police stations or gendarmeries, more than 700 members of the forces of the wounded order…
After this sudden onslaught of violence over a large territory, would the calls for calm begin to carry? Sunday afternoon, the grandmother of the teenager killed last Tuesday in Nanterre, west of Paris, during a traffic check after a refusal to comply sent a message to the rioters.
“Let them not break the windows, let them not break the schools, not the buses”, urged Nadia on BFMTV.
“Tired”, “devastated”, she asked that the police officer who killed the shot pay for his gesture “like everyone else”, ensuring that he had “trust in justice”.
A few hours earlier, several politicians feared that “a milestone” had been “crossed” during the attack which targeted the first magistrate of L’Haÿ-les-Roses, Sunday around 1:30 a.m. (23:30 GMT), when a ram-car loaded with incendiary products entered the grounds of his home while he was in his town hall.
The Créteil prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for “attempted assassination”.
While fleeing with her two young children, the wife of Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun, Mélanie Nowak, departmental councilor and deputy mayor, fractured her tibia and was hospitalized for surgery.
“There is no doubt that they wanted to burn the house” and, when “they realized that there was someone inside, far from stopping on the contrary, they triggered a salvo of firework mortars which was completely crazy”, testified Vincent Jeanbrun on TF1.
“I never would have imagined that my family would be threatened with death”, he was indignant, calling for “a republican start”.
South of Lyon (Rhône), in the small town of Charly, a device intended “unambiguously” to cause a fire was found Sunday morning at the mayor’s home, his services said.
For the third consecutive night, a massive device was maintained on the territory, with 45,000 gendarmes and police mobilized.
Seized by an amateur video that contradicted the initial story delivered by the police, the point-blank shooting of a biker and the death of young Nahel, in Nanterre, shocked the very top of the state, set the country ablaze and resounded far beyond the French borders.
This wave of violence and the anger of many young residents of working-class neighborhoods against police or state violence recalled the riots that shook France in 2005, after the death of two teenagers pursued by the police. In three weeks, 10,000 vehicles had been destroyed, more than 200 public buildings burned down and some 5,200 people arrested.
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07/03/2023 07:51:24 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
