Elisabeth Borne called on Thursday to “avoid any escalation” in the violence during a visit to Garges-lès-Gonesse, where the town hall was set on fire during the new night of riots which followed the death of the young Nahel, then to Bezons (Val-d’Oise) where a school partially burned down.
“We must obviously avoid any escalation, there is a drama, justice is doing its job. The author of the shot should be indicted,” she told the press.
“I call for appeasement. Let justice do its job,” insisted the head of government.
Elisabeth Borne was able to see the extent of the damage in this city in the northern suburbs of Paris. The town hall, a modern glass building, is partly charred, the disaster revealing its metal structures.
“We will see how to help the mayor to restart services, to reopen the town hall”, she assured. “The government has a lot of consideration for the inhabitants of this city as for all French people,” she added.
The mayor of the city of Val-d’Oise, the centrist Benoît Jimenez (UDI), affirmed for his part that the degradations were only the fact of “20 or 30 young people”.
The head of government also exchanged with several inhabitants of the city. “As Gargeois, we will talk to young people, we will call for calm”, assured him one of them.
– “Same justice for all” –
“The most important thing today is support for the family. We need a strong signal. If a fault has been committed, we need a sanction, so we won’t say that we are in a country of non- right”, he added, like several other inhabitants who insisted on the need for “the same justice for all”.
After leaving Garges-lès-Gonesse, where some residents asked her for selfies, the Prime Minister then went to Bezons, also in Val d’Oise, where she visited the Angela-Davis school group whose facade was damaged by fire.
Accompanied by the Minister of Education Pap Ndiaye, she visited a classroom affected by fire spread from outside.
Visibly moved, the mayor of the city, Nessrine Menhaouara, insisted on the need to “restore confidence” between the State, elected officials and the population.
“We haven’t had a suburban plan for a very long time, we haven’t been able to provide answers”. “There are a lot of elected officials like me today who are very motivated to do the job. But at the end of the year, we are just desperate when we see our means, we cannot follow”, she continued.
For Ms. Borne, after these two nights of riots, “all elected officials send the same message. No elected official, no mayor wants to have degraded public facilities, symbols so strong as a degraded City Hall. “
“It is very important that we pass on this message and that all the associations that work with young people are very present today, in the coming days,” she added.
“It is essential that all citizens have confidence in justice,” insisted the Prime Minister. “We will not let violence of the type we have seen go unpunished”. “We understood that we had bands, we can call them bands, which are very agile and so we will adapt according to their actions,” she said.
06/29/2023 16:46:34 – Bezons (France) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP