France deployed 40,000 police and gendarmes across the country on Thursday in an attempt to contain riots that followed the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old by a police officer on Tuesday, with tensions expected to continue rising, a territorial intelligence memo quoted by several media states.
Following the fatal shooting, protesters set cars on fire in the teenager’s home city of Nanterre. Clashes continued in other French cities on Wednesday.
The intelligence services fear widespread clashes will continue over the next few nights, warning that law enforcement officers and “symbols of the State or public authority could be targeted.”
In response to expected clashes, 40,000 police and gendarmes were deployed Thursday night, including 5,000 in Paris, with the elite units of RAID and GIGN being deployed in reserve.
While the government has appealed for de-escalation and condemned the violence, particularly the burning of police stations, schools and town halls, political parties have reacted quickly.
On the left, politicians repeated their long-standing criticism of police practices during routine checks and stressed the ongoing violence and systemic racism within law enforcement.
“The watchdogs order us to call for calm. We are calling for justice”, said far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon of La France Insoumise.
His comments drew criticism from the government and a growing number of elected representatives who, like the government, also call for calm and de-escalation.
French Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti criticised those who “spit on the police and the justice system”, calling them “moral accomplices” to those engaging in the violence.
Meanwhile, politicians on the right side of the political aisle, like Éric Ciotti (Les Républicains/EPP) and Éric Zemmour (Reconquête/NI) have called for the introduction of a state of emergency – a scenario that Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has already ruled out.
The last time France declared a state of emergency for similar riots was in 2005. At the time, riots broke out in the Paris suburbs following the deaths of two young people, who, after fleeing a police check, hid in an electric substation and died of electrocution.
During the clashes in the days that followed, police threw a tear gas grenade at the entrance to a mosque. This escalated the situation, and the riots lasted three weeks, spreading to various parts of the country.
A total of 421 people were arrested according to sources close to Darmanin on Friday morning.
(Davide Basso | EURACTIV.fr)
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