Updated 01:31 | Published at 01:29
17-year-old Nahel has been buried peacefully.
Now President Macron is calling for responsibility – on the part of both protesters and online actors.
– Social media has played a significant role in what has happened in recent days, he says.
The coffin with the shot dead 17-year-old Nahel was carried out of the mosque in Nanterre at just after 3pm on Saturday afternoon.
Not everyone who was there found a place in the building. Hundreds had laid out their clothes in the street to pray.
The hearse on its way to the funeral at Mont-Valérien was escorted by thousands of people.
Combined information claims that the funeral took place calmly and peacefully.
However, that cannot be said about the night before.
2560 fires
The numbers of the devastation speak for themselves:
1,350 vehicles were destroyed.
2,560 fires were reported.
266 buildings were set on fire or damaged. Of them 26 town halls and 24 schools.
45,000 police had been deployed.
Over 1,300 people were arrested.
This according to the Ministry of the Interior, reports the French newspaper Les Echos.
The violence also spread to neighboring Belgium, with over 100 arrested in Brussels after “scenes of chaos”, according to the BBC.
Macron remains in the country
Saturday evening was also messy, but in the context still significantly calmer.
At half past twelve, the police reported that 43 people had been arrested in Marseille and 21 in Lyon.
In Paris, the Champs-Élysées has become a “no-go zone” for Protestants. Instead, the place is guarded by heavily equipped police.
French President Emmanuel Macron – who was criticized earlier this week for attending an Elton John concert at the same time as the riots – has canceled his city visit to Germany. “Given the situation, the president has indicated that he wants to stay in France for the next few days,” reads a press release.
The role of social media
Macron spoke on Friday about violent perpetrators in France organizing themselves with the help of social media. At the same time, they are spurred on by each other and basically compete to see who can be the worst.
– Social media has played a significant role in what has happened in recent days, he said in a televised speech, reports Reuters.
At the same time, he believes that many imitate what they see on the clips that are spread and seem to “lose their grip on what is real”.
The French state has also asked social media operators, such as Tiktok and Snapshat, to remove the most sensitive material. At the same time, they are encouraged to help with the identification of “those who use social networks to incite violence and disorder”.
“Then the riots would have ended”
In the Epeule district of Roubaix, northern France, there is now a curfew for minors after ten in the evening. Just like in many other places in the country.
There, Adil, 30, talks with Le Monde on Friday.
– They burned everything. They will not come back.
Like Macron, he is aware that the often young protesters are being triggered by each other online.
– They do it as a sport. It’s a competition on these networks. Tomorrow, if we had hijacked the internet, the riots would have ended, he says.