Emmanuel Macron has said France needs a return to authority “at every level” after recent urban unrest over the police shooting of a teenager, suggesting that poor parenting was part of the reason teenagers had taken to the streets.
The police killing of Nahel, a 17-year-old of Algerian background, during a traffic stop last month triggered protest marches and six nights of disorder as young men clashed with police and set alight public buildings and cars. Many accused the government of allowing a culture of institutional racism in the police to fester. The officer who fired at Nahel has been charged with voluntary homicide and jailed awaiting trial.
The French president used his first TV interview since the unrest to condemn what he called the “indescribable violence” of the clashes on the streets, including “the burning of schools, city halls, gyms and libraries” and “the violence of looting”.
He said: “The lesson I draw from this is: order, order, order.”
Macron did not refer to concerns on the left and from rights groups that the rioting reflected longstanding anger over racism and discrimination in law enforcement. He instead took a hard line on the need for more authority, law and order, saying, “Order must prevail. There is no freedom without order.”
Macron repeated his suggestion that poor parenting, particularly by single parents, had contributed to teenagers as young as 16 taking to the streets against police. He said of those arrested: “An overwhelming majority have a fragile family framework, either because they come from a single-parent family or their family is on child support benefits.” He said he would launch policies in the autumn to focus on parenting skills and supporting families.
Macron also repeated his criticism over the role of social networks during the unrest and looting, saying: “We need to better protect our teenagers and young adults from screens.” He said certain content should be removed when it was a call to violence and that “public digital order” was needed “to stop excesses”.
Macron was also questioned about the growing controversy over the jailing of a police officer accused of violently assaulting a young man during clashes in Marseille.
A 21-year-old man, named as Hedi, said he was beaten by four or five men, who he identified as police. Hedi’s lawyer said he was also hit in the head by a blast ball fired by police, had to undergo surgery, and risks losing sight in an eye.
Four Marseille police officers were charged last week over the incident, one of whom was remanded in custody awaiting trial.
But France’s national police chief, Frédéric Veaux, said in a newspaper interview that law enforcement officers under investigation should not be jailed like ordinary citizens.
“Knowing that he is in prison is stopping me from sleeping,” Veaux told Le Parisien. “In general, I believe that ahead of a possible trial, a police officer should not be in prison, even if he may have committed serious faults or errors in the course of his work.”
The Paris police chief, Laurent Nuñez, tweeted that he shared Veaux’s opinion. Several hundred Marseille police officers have gone on sick leave in protest over the officer’s detention.
The French left reacted with fury, saying the police chief was essentially considering police officers to be above the law.
Macron steered clear of giving a direct reaction, saying he understood the “emotion” of the police after the difficulties of tackling the recent unrest, but emphasised that “no one in the republic is above the law”.
The Socialist party leader, Olivier Faure, said: “It’s extremely serious, the entire police hierarchy places itself above justice and the rules of pre-trial detention … What’s at stake here is democracy and respect for the rule of law. Parliament must be reconvened urgently.”
Cécile Mamelin, the vice-president of the Union of Magistrates, said the comments by the national police chief were “scandalous” and “extremely serious in a state of law”.
Macron’s views on the urban disturbances were also criticised by opposition politicians. The left condemned him for pointing the finger at single parents, and Faure said of Macron’s promise of “order, order, order”: “Let’s keep it to liberty, equality, fraternity, thank you.”
Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party said Macron had failed to establish a culture of law and order.
