Riots: Rallies in support of local elected officials Monday noon

(Updated throughout)

PARIS, July 2 (Reuters) – The night from Saturday to Sunday was less agitated than the previous ones on the front of urban violence in France, where more than 700 people were arrested and degradations still noted, while the Elysée and Matignon were preparing for the hours and days to come to be decisive in getting out of a week of crisis.

The attack on the home of a mayor in the Paris suburbs, deemed “unbearable” by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, was condemned by officials from all political stripes on social networks.

The grandmother of the young man shot dead by a police officer during a traffic check in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), a tragedy at the origin of five nights of urban violence across France, has called for calm .

According to Nadia, interviewed by BFM TV, the rioters are using the death of Nahel, her grandson, as a pretext. “The people who are breaking, I tell them: stop. Let them not break the windows, the buses, the schools,” she said.

“Nahel is dead, my daughter is lost. She has no life now,” she continued. Hundreds of people attended the funeral of Nahel on Saturday at the Nanterre mosque, who was buried in the Mont Valérien cemetery.

The Ministry of the Interior reported 719 arrests – including 375 in Paris and the inner suburbs – overnight from Saturday to Sunday, against 1,311 the previous night and 875 the one before.

Forty-five police and gendarmes were injured and 871 fires noted, the same source said.

After postponing a three-day state visit to Germany scheduled for this Sunday, President Emmanuel Macron gave a “situation update” on Sunday evening at the Elysee Palace in the presence of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Interior and the Keeper of the Seals.

According to Elisabeth Borne’s entourage, the exchange focused on the situation and the organization of the next few days. “The number one priority is to restore order. We are not yet out of this situation and we must remain focused on the hours to come,” said a source.

CAUTION

The Prime Minister will also invite the presidents of the political groups to Matignon on Tuesday to “show the unity of the nation”, added this source, while the President of the Senate and the President of the National Assembly will be received Monday at the Elysium.

“At the same time, the president then wishes to begin a meticulous and longer-term work to understand in depth the reasons which led to these events”, indicated a person present at the meeting.

In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the ARD channel that he was watching the situation in France “with concern”. “I don’t expect France to become unstable, although the images are of course very distressing,” he said.

China and several Western countries have called on their nationals to be vigilant in the face of the riots, casting a shadow over the summer tourist season, which is moreover one year from the Paris Olympics.

Five days after Nahel’s death, abuses were still reported in many places, including Strasbourg and Nice.

“Quieter night thanks to the resolute action of the police”, tweeted early Sunday morning the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who had deployed around 45,000 gendarmes and police throughout the country, as the day before, with reinforcements in Marseilles, Lyons and Grenoble.

“We can’t talk about a decline, that wouldn’t be reasonable. You have to be extremely careful,” said Laurent Nunez, Paris police chief, on BFM TV.

On the night of Sunday to Monday, “there will be the same system, in terms of the number of staff, in strategy, we will be very reactive, we will call out massively,” he said. “We will hold out for as long as it takes.”

Saturday evening in Paris, gatherings of young people, often dressed in black and screwed to their mobile phones, took place near the avenue des Champs-Elysées, monitored by an important security device.

SUPPORT FOR MAYORS MONDAY

Incidents also broke out in downtown Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), where looting attempts and clashes between young people and police, who used tear gas, were reported.

The latest report from the city authorities on Sunday reported 71 people arrested and seven police officers injured, including one in the head who was hospitalized.

In Tourcoing (North), the Raid and CRS intervened when at least one car was burned despite the curfew, decreed in many municipalities.

In the Paris region, the home of the mayor Les Républicains of L’Haÿ-les-Roses (Val-de-Marne), Vincent Jeanbrun, was attacked with a ramming car and his wife and children were targeted, provoking a wave of indignation and support throughout the political class.

Elisabeth Borne was there at midday in the company of Gérald Darmanin and the president of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse.

“We will not let anything pass,” the head of government told elected officials facing violence, especially in recent days.

Speaking to the press, the Créteil prosecutor decided to retain “the qualification of attempted assassination” after the attack on the home and family of the elected official.

This episode shows that “a milestone has been crossed”, estimated Laurent Nunez, whereas so far the attacks have mainly targeted Republican symbols such as town halls and police stations, or businesses.

Rallies in support of the mayors are scheduled for Monday at midday. “Be for once the majority that expresses itself and no longer the silent majority, because we always hear these micro minorities of thugs who damage the image of youth, of children from immigrant backgrounds (…) neighborhood children,” said Vincent Jeanbrun on TF1.

THE TOUR DE FRANCE BETWEEN CALM AND WORRY

After starting in Bilbao, Spain, the Tour de France sets off for France on Monday with a visit to Bayonne, Dax, Pau and Bordeaux throughout the week.

The members of the foreign teams admitted knowing little about the situation in France because they operate in a “bubble” on the tour.

Some 33,000 representatives of the police are deployed throughout the three weeks of the cycle race, but the team buses and equipment are only guarded at night by private security agents.

Tour organizers said they were ready to adapt to any situation. “We are in constant contact with the state services, as every year, and we are following the situation with great attention,” said Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour, to journalists.

Within the French cycling teams, the tone is slightly different.

“Of course we are concerned, we cannot be insensitive to what is happening, but there is not much we can do about it. We are awaiting information from the organizers, law enforcement, and will do what they tell us to do,” Philippe Mauduit, sporting director of Groupama FDJ, told Reuters. (Report Elizabeth Pineau, with Pascal Rossignol in the North and Marc Leras in Marseille, Julien Pretot in San Sebastian (Spain), edited by Gilles Guillaume and Jean Terzian)