Republican President Eric Ciotti called on Thursday for a state of emergency to be declared in neighborhoods that have been the scene of violence after the death of a teenager killed by police, an option the government says it is not considering “today” .
“The images of riots tonight everywhere in France are unbearable,” said Mr. Ciotti in a press release, according to whom “nothing can justify this outburst of violence”.
“Under no circumstances can the Republic submit. I demand the immediate initiation of a state of emergency wherever incidents have broken out,” he added.
The triggering of the state of emergency “is not an option being considered today”, a government source told AFP on Thursday after an interministerial crisis unit chaired by President Emmanuel Macron.
The deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes saw in the riots “the result of the factious methods of the rebellious” and estimated that “Mr. Mélenchon dreams of a revolution but only offers the French people the fear and the danger of an insurrection”.
“The far left bears a very heavy responsibility because it has clearly called for a riot,” he then said at a press conference.
“These calls come to crown a political project of civil war nourished by the repeated calls of hatred against the forces of order”, he added.
According to him this project is “cowardly complacent with the enemies of the Republic, while calling for hatred of those who protect it”.
Bringing “full support to the police”, he said he would go to two police stations in Nice on Thursday evening.
President LR of the Senate Gérard Larcher said on LCI “in solidarity with all these police officers who have been injured”. “I am wary of those who shout against the police. A rule of law needs a police force, a gendarmerie,” added the senator from Yvelines.
Police and gendarmes “have duties in relation to the rule of law”, said Mr. Larcher, calling for “letting the investigation and justice” take place.
But “the violence is unacceptable, the riots are unacceptable” and “they must be repressed in the clearest possible way”, he estimated.
The President of Reconquest! Eric Zemmour had also called for “the establishment of a state of emergency from” Thursday evening, saying in a tweet that “only firmness can bring order and peace”.
The state of emergency, which allows administrative authorities to take exceptional measures such as a traffic ban, was notably triggered in November 2005 after 10 days of riots in the suburbs.
06/29/2023 17:51:16 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
