France has been rocked by unrest for three consecutive nights. The trigger for the unrest was the shooting death of a 17-year-old boy in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday.
Hundreds of people have been arrested in widespread protests, as shops have been looted and vehicles set on fire. Public buildings have also been targeted, such as a police station in the town of Pau in the Pyrenees and a primary school and a district office in Lille.
Before the crisis meeting with the president, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne says the government is considering “all possibilities” to restore order in the country. During the night, around 40,000 police and gendarmes were deployed in several cities.
When asked if the government is considering declaring a state of emergency, which some right-wing opposition parties have demanded, she replies:
— I will not tell you now, but we are looking at all possibilities, with one priority: to restore order throughout the country.
During Friday morning, a ministerial meeting took place to summarize the situation after the third night’s riot. In a tweet after the meeting, Elisabeth Borne described the riots as “unbearable and unforgivable”.