Paris, France — French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday met with hundreds of French officials to begin exploring the “deeper reasons” for the country’s plunge into riots after the killing of a teenager at a traffic stop.
The Elysee palace meeting with more than 300 mayors, whose municipalities suffered damage over a week of violence, came after the authorities reported a much calmer night across the country.
“Is it a permanent return to calm? I will be cautious, but the peak that we’ve seen in previous days has passed,” Macron said, according to a participant.
“We all want a lasting, republican order,” he said. “That’s the absolute priority.”
The government has battled riots and looting since 17-year-old Nahel M. was killed by an officer during a traffic stop on June 27 just outside Paris, rekindling long-standing accusations of systemic racism among security forces.
Overnight violence in French cities had halved in 24 hours, the interior ministry said, with 72 people arrested overnight nationwide — bringing the total to almost 3,500.
That included 24 arrested in and around Paris, where the riots first broke out.
The interior ministry said dozens of buildings were damaged — including attacks on four offices of police or gendarmes — but there were no injuries.
More than 150 vehicles had been set ablaze, and hundreds of fires started in rubbish bins or other public areas.
Police mobilization had been kept at the same level as the two previous nights, at 45,000 across France.
Mayors across France had held rallies Monday calling for an end to the violent clashes.
‘Painstaking long-term work’ –
Their call for a “return to republican order” came after the home of the mayor of a Paris suburb was rammed with a burning car, prompting widespread outrage.
At the gathering of mayors, Macron was hoping to “start the painstaking, long-term work needed to understand the deeper reasons that led to these events”, an official at the president’s office said.
But with right- and left-wing officials pointing fingers at one another and each side insistent on their own solutions, the centrist president said at the end of the meeting that they had failed to find “unanimity”.
His government would “reach very real solutions” over the summer, he added, saying “we must strike while the iron is hot”.
“I came to hear the president give us a vision, set a course. I didn’t come for a group therapy session,” complained Zartoshte Bakhtiari, mayor of Neuilly-sur-Marne east of Paris.
Just under 4,000 arrests have been made since Friday, including more than 1,200 minors, according to justice ministry figures.
Macron raised the idea of handing out quick-fire fines to the parents of children caught for vandalism or robberies.
“With the first crime, we need to find a way of sanctioning the families financially and easily,” he said, according to comments reported by the Parisien newspaper.
During the meeting with mayors Macron also promised to fast-track a new law allowing for rapid assistance with rebuilding damaged buildings, public spaces and vandalized transport infrastructure
‘Destroyed everything’
Joseph Guret surveyed the charred remains of his tobacco shop outside Paris, one of the hundreds of businesses ransacked in riots that have caused an estimated one billion euros across France.
“They’ve taken my whole life away, now I have nothing left,” Guret said, his voice shaking.
The 30-year-old shop owner said his tobacconist in Neuilly-sur-Marne was attacked by 10 people on Thursday night who “took everything they could” and then “burned everything”.
The government had by Tuesday counted attacks on 10 shopping malls, 200 supermarkets, 60 sporting goods shops, almost 440 tobacconists and 370 bank branches since June 27.
Inching through the space cut off from electricity by the light of his phone, Guret wondered “why they did this, they’ve burned their own neighbourhood.”
Selling lottery tickets, postage stamps and often coffee and snacks as well as tobacco products, French “tabacs” can be a rare meeting spot in remote or deprived communities.
“Now they have to drive for 10 minutes to get cigarettes,” Guret said as he stepped around scorched chairs.
President Emmanuel Macron suggested Tuesday that the “peak” of rioting “has passed”, while remaining “cautious” for the coming days.
Abdelhamid Faddeoui, head of Aetos Private Security based near Paris, said “everyone is afraid that this is just a false calm” and “most of my clients are keeping up a high level of security”.
In the violence since teenager Nahel M. was shot by police in a traffic stop, damage has amounted to “more than a billion euros ($1.1 billion) without counting the harm to tourism”, said Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux, head of employers’ organization Medef in an interview with the Parisien daily on Monday.
“This situation has also led to a worsening of France’s image that will have to be repaired,” he added, warning that foreign investors could “abandon projects” in the country.
‘Life’s work to ash’
With some shop owners talking about going out of business in the wake of attacks, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire has vowed government aid and pushed insurers and banks to help out.
“When your shop has been totally burned down, when your whole life’s work is turned to ash, the state has to be there by your side,” he said Tuesday, promising “case-by-case cancellations of tax and social charges for the worst-affected shopkeepers”.
Insurers’ association France Assureurs asked members Tuesday to reduce deductibles for “small independent shopkeepers who have been hit hardest” in the rioting.
Firms have also been requested to extend the deadline for declaring damages to 30 days, from five usually, and to speed up payouts including down payments for “the most difficult situation,” the body said in a statement.
France Assureurs president Florence Lustman told broadcaster Franceinfo that 5,800 claims had reached insurers, worth “at least 280 million euros” — significantly higher than France’s three-week riots in 2005, which totaled 204 million.
Daniel Baal, general manager of cooperative bank Credit Mutuel Alliance Federale, said his firm would offer affected businesses holidays from loan payments or short-term overdrafts to get through the toughest times.
“Clients living in these neighborhoods are often not the best-off, and we want to stand by them, because they’re victims… in neighborhoods where there have been riots,” Baal added
Security firms ‘extremely stretched’
Even as the government hopes for a return to business as usual, security firms are adding staff to meet a surge in demand.
“There are companies which have doubled or tripled their security staff,” said Aetos director Faddeoui.
“The sector is extremely stretched, we need around 20,000 or 22,000 extra security guards,” to meet demand, he added.
Jeremy Regalado, head of glass repair firm WonderGlass, told AFP that “we’ve had so many calls we’ve had to turn away some clients”.
“On Friday alone we put up wooden barriers to protect 10 shops in less than six hours,” he added.
Most businesses that chose to protect their storefronts have left the boards — installed for a price of between 50 and 100 euros per square meter (10 square feet) — in place for now.
Compared with the cost of replacing a broken window — up to 5,000 euros — it seems to many shopkeepers to be the safest option.
‘It pays to kill a young Arab’
Police meanwhile said it questioned one of the passengers in the car driven by Nahel M., who had turned himself in, to find out more about the exact circumstances of the shooting.
The policeman who fired the lethal shot remained in custody Tuesday, charged with homicide.
An online collection for the family of the 38-year-old, launched by far-right figure Jean Messiha, has gathered more 1.4 million euros ($1.5 million), sparking outrage among the political left.
“It pays to kill a young Arab,” tweeted Manon Aubry, a European Parliament deputy for the hard-left LFI party.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne also expressed her unease with the initiative, saying it did not “contribute to calming the situation”.
A fund to support the family of Nahel has run to just under 346,000 euros.