Emmanuel Macron denounced, this Friday, June 30, “an unacceptable instrumentalization of the death of a teenager” and announced that “additional means” were going to be deployed by the Minister of the Interior after three nights of urban riots following of the death of young Nahel during a police check in Nanterre.
“There is an unacceptable instrumentalization of the death of a teenager, which we all deplore when the period should be one of meditation and respect”, declared the Head of State at the conclusion of the meeting of the interministerial cell of crisis held Friday at the Ministry of the Interior.
“Faced with this, I condemn in the strongest terms all those who use this situation and this moment to try to create disorder and attack our institutions. They bear an overwhelming responsibility. And I condemn with the strongest great firmness, we condemn them all, this pure and unjustifiable violence which has no legitimacy”, continued Emmanuel Macron.
The president welcomed the “rapid and appropriate” response from the police and announced that “additional resources” would be deployed by the Ministry of the Interior. “The decision has been taken to cancel several festive events and several gatherings in the departments which are the most sensitive”, also indicated Emmanuel Macron.
The President of the Republic also took advantage of this speech to call on “all parents to be responsible” who, according to him, must keep their children at home. “It is clear that the context we are living in, as we can see, is the result of sometimes organized, violent and equipped groups, which we condemn, which we apprehend and which will be brought to justice, but also of many young people. A third of those arrested of the last night are young, sometimes very young”, observed Emmanuel Macron.
“It is the parents’ responsibility to keep them at home. So it is important for everyone’s peace of mind that parental responsibility can clearly be exercised. […] The Republic is not intended to replace them,” he continued.
“A form of mimicry of violence”
He also said he expected a “spirit of responsibility” from the major social media platforms, citing in particular Snapchat and TikTok where “violent gatherings” are organized and which “also arouse a form of mimicry of violence, which leads to younger to a form of leaving reality”. “We sometimes have the feeling that some of them live on the street with the video games that have intoxicated them,” said Emmanuel Macron.
“The law has provided, including in recent months, for changes and the exercise of parental control which should be fully respected, but we will take several measures in the coming hours. […] first in connection with these platforms, to organize the withdrawal of the most sensitive content”, announced the Head of State. “Requests will also be made wherever it is useful and whenever it is useful, to have the identity of those who use these social networks to call for disorder or to exacerbate violence”, he specified.
The President of the Republic left the European Union summit in Brussels on Friday to return to Paris, canceling his press conference in the process.
During the night from Thursday to Friday, the police carried out 875 arrests, including 408 in Paris and its inner suburbs, according to the final report of the Ministry of the Interior. A total of 249 police and gendarmes were injured overnight.
Seized by an amateur video, the close range shooting of a police motorcyclist on Tuesday morning on Nahel, a young man of 17, during a road check in Nanterre, continues to set many towns in the country ablaze. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin asks the prefects to stop buses and trams throughout France this Friday evening after 9 p.m.