Paris.– The French government is going to deploy 40,000 police officers and gendarmes next night to try to prevent the riots that have taken place in the last two days after the death of a 17-year-old boy shot by an agent in Nanterre, a city in the outskirts of Paris.
“We are going to do everything possible to bring order back everywhere,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin stressed in an appearance before the press. who explained that the deployment of law enforcement today will be four times more important than last night.
The minister insisted that “the riots have nothing to do with what happened in Nanterre” and that the attacks that took place against the agents last night (170 were injured, although none seriously) or against public buildings are ” absolutely unacceptable.”
At least 150 people were arrested on the second day of riots, which also resulted in attacks on 90 public buildings (such as town halls, schools, police stations or courts), many of them set on fire, like dozens of cars.
For Darmanin, behind this there is not a simple spontaneous protest movement against the death of the minor Nahel in Nanterre, but a clear will to combat the symbols and values of the French Republic.
An idea that was reiterated by the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, who stated that “nothing justifies the violence that has occurred tonight and that” attacking symbols of the Republic is absolutely intolerable.”
The Interior Minister said he expected all political leaders to call for calm and warned that “there can be no conditions”, in a message clearly addressed to one of the leaders of the left-wing opposition, and particularly to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, of the Unsubmissive France (LFI).
Mélenchon has multiplied the messages on Twitter in which he describes the policeman who killed Nahel as a “murderer” and in which he has also charged Darmanin, without naming him directly: “The watchdogs order us to call for calm. We ask for justice.”
The Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, emphasized for his part that “there is an open judicial investigation against a police officer, and not against the police«, and disqualified «all those who irresponsibly spit on the police and justice, because they are also morally responsible for the exactions that have been committed».
He also wanted to make it clear that “Justice is not done on television sets or on social networks” or “with fires in the street” and assured that the perpetrators of the riots will be identified and that the Penal Code will be applied to them.
A first litmus test regarding the continuation and spread of the riots comes this afternoon, with the concentration that has been called by the Nahel’s family in front of the prefecture (government delegation) of Nanterre. The mother had called for “a revolt” for her son.
