Riots in France broke out when police shot dead a 17-year-old boy of Algerian background in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday last week.
The reasons for the recent unrest in France were discussed today in the morning of . Researcher specializing in French politics Laura Parkkinen notes that France has a long tradition of opposing the regime.
– What makes this particularly worrying is the total anger smoldering in the suburbs. Young people feel that they are not part of French society.
According to Parkkinen, the rioting young people do not feel that traditional French values, freedom, brotherhood and equality are their own, and therefore they take “the law into their own hands”.
Also an academy researcher Timo Miettinen points out that those arrested in the riots are very young, unlike in previous large-scale, political demonstrations.
– At the weekend, we heard that the average age of those arrested was 17 years. This is the rebellion of children or teenagers. In that regard, I would be very careful not to frame this too much in terms of political demands.
“France is in many ways an unequal society”
Academy researcher Timo Miettinen sees two root causes behind the French riots.
The first is related to social inequality: not all French people see the same opportunities in life.
– In many ways, France is an unequal society with a lot of different prejudices related to ethnic background.
Miettinen also states that a lot of suburban areas have been built in France after the Second World War, where a lot of people with an immigrant background live.
– Perhaps there are certain issues related to urban planning that have been unsuccessful, Miettinen estimates.