Police stations, schools, shops, public transport, cars, were destroyed or set on fire during the third night of rioting which shook France on Thursday evening. In total, the Interior announced 875 arrests, while the executive fears a new escalation three days after the death of Nahel, 17, killed by police fire after refusing to comply.
“The French executive faced with the challenge of the riots”, “The return of the debates on police violence”, “The difficult question of identity in the French suburbs”; the foreign press leans over to France’s bedside to try to understand the springs of this access of violence.
In the United States, the New York Times adopts a communitarian reading of events. The progressive daily sees a return to the debate on “race, power and identity” in France. Several articles open the site: “Who was Nahel.M?”*, “A teenager killed by the police” or “The shots fired by the police, a new challenge for Macron”.
“In The Life and Death of Nahel M. – the only name by which the young man has been publicly identified – the demonstrators identified themselves as French Algerians, French Moroccans, French Muslims and black French people living in gethos for minorities, in a predominantly white country that pretends not to see differences in skin color. Like them, Nahel was a French citizen of North African origin, in his case Moroccan and Algerian. ”, can we read in an article which returns to the white march.
A few lines later, the journalist mentions the clashes that took place on the sidelines of the procession: “Already, puffs of tear gas were coming down from the nearby square where Nahel was killed. protesters. The country’s tough-talking interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, announced earlier in the day that he was sending 40,000 police and gendarmes to the streets, more than four times as many as the day before. Shortly before midnight , the government said more than 100 other people were arrested on Thursday.”
“It’s a scenario that has been repeated for decades in France, the circumstances are similar,” said a journalist from the famous German daily, Die Welt. “In the suburbs of Paris and other agglomerations, where people feeling excluded from social ascent pile up in high-rise estates, police control degenerates. A young person dies, there are riots which, in this case, spread to cities all over France during the night from Wednesday to Thursday”, quickly summarizes the article. According to the daily, the violence that punctuates the territory is the product of various typically French issues.
“A debate on discrimination and police violence is long overdue”, also advances the German media.
See also Death of Nahel: schools and town halls burned down in Alsace and Lorraine during the riots
For the Spanish media El País, the violence resurfaced after a short-lived lull. “After a winter of political crisis and demonstrations against pension reform”, France seems to be seeing one of its “old fractures” revive: that of the “suburbs”. The journalist describes them as “multicultural and poor” spaces, populated by children and grandchildren of immigrants, who often feel considered “second-class” citizens.
The article mainly returns to the “political divide” which divides France. Quoting first Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the radical left, who “does not call for calm” and Marine Le Pen, the figure of the extreme right who “demands the establishment of a state emergency”. “Political violence has never been taboo in France, a country with a revolutionary tradition,” the article sums up.
On the English side, The Guardian covers the events at the opening of its site, in the form of a live broadcast. “Riots in France: Emmanuel Macron calls a crisis meeting after the violence and looting that followed the death of a teenager shot dead by the police”, displays the site. The English daily follows the events taking place in France hour by hour, focusing particularly on the nocturnal riots and the political decisions that result from them.
The BBC, which also launched a direct, title on “looting, fires and violence” as well as the number of people arrested during the night. The article states that “the teenager’s death has reignited grievances about policing and racial profiling in French suburbs”.
The Italian daily headlined the number of arrests overnight and the new crisis meeting organized by the French head of state. The article is quite short and very informative.
He returns to the riots in figures and the reaction of the executive who is ready to “adapt” the rules for maintaining order.
The Belgian daily opens its site on French events. And for good reason, neighboring country, it risks contagion as shown by the overflows observed during the night from Thursday to Friday. In all, 29 people were arrested by the Belgian police, including 26 minors. “I regret and condemn any desire to import into the neighborhoods of our capital the acts of urban violence which are raging in several French cities”, even declared the mayor of Etterbeek, Vincent De Wolf, on Twitter.
*The press titles have been translated into French.
