The government renewed its security measures on Saturday in anticipation of a fifth consecutive night of urban riots after the death on Tuesday of Nahel, 17, killed by a police officer and buried far from the cameras in his city of Nanterre.
Traveling to the Dreux police station (Eure-et-Loir), Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that the 45,000 police and gendarmes already mobilized last night would be on the bridge again on Saturday evening, including 7,000 in Paris and in the near suburbs.
Part of these staff were moved to Marseille and Lyon, the main cities affected on Friday evening.
Seized by an amateur video that contradicted the initial story given by the police, the point-blank shooting of a biker and the death of the teenager on Tuesday during a road check in Nanterre shocked the very top of the State. , ignited the whole country and resonated well beyond the French borders and especially in Algeria, the country of origin of his family.
Faced with this situation, Emmanuel Macron informed his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Saturday of his decision to postpone his planned state visit to his country from Sunday evening to Tuesday. The head of state made a series of phone calls on Saturday afternoon to mayors of the country, worried about the spiral of violence that is shaking the country.
During the night from Friday to Saturday, the police carried out more than 1,300 arrests, a record figure since Tuesday, even if Mr. Darmanin noted a drop in the intensity of the violence with in particular “50% of fires. less vehicles”.
Early Saturday evening, small groups of young people were already gathered on the Canebière and were quickly dispersed, noted AFP journalists. At 8:00 p.m., the situation was generally under control in Marseille, where a police source reported seven arrests for theft in a shopping center in the north of the city.
In the Paris region, the Créteil-Soleil shopping center (Val-de-Marne) was closed earlier, at 4 p.m., as a preventive measure, due to messages on social networks.
Many municipalities have instituted a curfew and public transport networks have been closed earlier than expected, in particular that of Ile-de-France buses and trams from 9 p.m.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne was due to go late Saturday evening to the command room of the national police at the Ministry of the Interior, then to that of the Paris police headquarters to monitor law enforcement operations there, said learned AFP from a government source.
On Saturday, Nahel was buried at the end of the afternoon in the Mont-Valérien cemetery in Nanterre in the presence of his mother, his grandmother and several hundred people during a ceremony “very calm, in meditation and without overflow,” a witness told AFP.
In the morning, the atmosphere was very tense in front of the funeral home between groups of young people and the press, whose presence was not desired by the family, noted AFP journalists.
“Peace to his soul, may justice be done”, launched on condition of anonymity to AFP a Nanterrienne leaving the funeral home. “I came to support the mother, she only had him, poor thing”.
The scenes of destruction and looting of businesses that shake many cities in France have aroused the amazement and anger of their inhabitants.
“They came especially to break, steal and leave,” lamented in Marseille a merchant from the Merlan shopping center, Youcef Bettahar. “I was there until 5:00 a.m., very, very young girls and boys were leaving with bags full, we are really disgusted with what is happening.”
During the night from Friday to Saturday, 1,350 vehicles were set on fire, 266 buildings were set on fire or damaged, including 26 town halls and 24 schools, and 2,560 fires recorded on public roads, according to the Ministry of the Interior, net figures decrease compared to those of the previous night.
Police and gendarmerie buildings were attacked, 79 police officers and gendarmes were injured. “The next person who touches a police officer or a gendarme must know that he will be found”, warned Gérald Darmanin on Saturday evening.
The question of the state of emergency remains raised and monitored abroad, especially since France is hosting the Rugby World Cup in the fall, then the Olympic Games in Paris in the summer of 2024.
The players of the French football team sent a “call for appeasement” on Friday evening.
This spiral of violence and the anger of many young residents of working-class neighborhoods recalled the riots that shook France in 2005, after the death of two teenagers pursued by the police.
The 38-year-old policeman who fired the shot that killed Nahel was charged with intentional homicide and remanded in custody on Thursday afternoon.
07/01/2023 21:25:14 – Nanterre (AFP) – © 2023 AFP