Paris.- The French Government has prohibited the sale of fireworks, except for professionals, in view of the celebrations of the national holiday of July 14, announced the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, who promised “mass media” to guarantee order.
“I have just signed a decree, which will be published this Sunday in the official gazette, prohibiting the sale, carrying or transporting of fireworks,” Borne said in an interview published online by the newspaper Le Parisien.
“Only the professionals who will organize the fireworks in the municipalities will be able to buy them,” added the head of government.
In recent days, the police have confiscated several shipments of fireworks with a dubious destination, the most important of which was one of 2.7 tons detected near Rennes (northwest).
Borne promised the deployment of “mass media to protect the French” on the night of the 13th and the day of the 14th, since he acknowledged that there is “concern” in the population and in local officials about the possibility of new disturbances.
The head of the Government acknowledged that they have asked the social media platforms to act to stop the Dissemination of violent material that may incite further unrest. “But of course we are not going to deprive the French of the internet because there is violence,” he said.
The riots, which lasted for six consecutive nights, began after a 17-year-old man of Algerian origin was shot dead on June 27 by a police officer during a checkpoint in the town of Nanterra, on the outskirts of Paris.
Borne recalled that on the worst night of riots, Thursday June 29, there were between 7,000 and 8,000 violent people in the streets, compared to the almost six million inhabitants of the neighborhoods subject to special policies due to their high level of disadvantaged population.
The prime minister once again accused the leader of the leftist La France Insumisa, Jean Luc Mélenchon, of “irresponsible” for not condemning the violence, the same attitude that she attributed to other leaders of the formation.
“When they say that some buildings should not be burned, they imply that doing so with others is not serious,” he accused, in the same way that he criticized the extreme right of Marine Le Pen for seeking “scapegoats, easy answers” to the riots, in reference to his criticism of immigration.
Borne stressed that the Government’s response, with 3,700 arrests, a third of them minors, 585 immediate court appearances and 450 incarcerations show “a very firm response” from the State.
