Yanis Darras
The various right-wing mayor of Béziers Robert Ménard was the guest of Europe morning on Tuesday. At the microphone of Sonia Mabrouk, the elected official from the south of France called on the residents of the cities and the parents to denounce the young people who take part in the violent riots which have shaken the country for a week.
They are sometimes only 12 or 13 years old. While riots are raging all over France following the death of Nahel, 17, killed by a police officer after refusing to comply during a traffic check, one thing seems puzzling for the authorities. The age of the rioters is particularly low.
A third of those arrested are under 18, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said a few days ago. “A number of young people who participate in the riots” make youthful mistakes, believes the microphone of Europe 1, Robert Ménard. But the latter believes that many of them “do not feel French, and hate France”. A regret while the country is one of the most generous in the world, believes the mayor various right.
“We are accomplices”
Faced with the violence that is unleashed in the neighborhoods, “you know what kills me the most? It’s that the people of these neighborhoods, you don’t have one to denounce” the troublemakers, annoys Robert Menard. “When you have 50 young kids who are dressed in black, who come home at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m., who stink of gasoline because, for a certain number, they have set fires, and there is no There is no one to tell us: ‘It’s this one, this one’. It’s not normal. And I’m not even talking about the parents”, notes the former founder of Reporters Without Borders.
“When you have people behaving badly, you don’t say anything do you?” wonders the chosen one. So yes, “we are complicit” if we do not denounce, he concludes.