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full screen French President Emmanuel Macron and his Prime Minister Gabriel Attal are trying to find ways to curb youth violence. Archive image. Photo: Ludovic Marin/AP/TT
Rampant violence in which teenagers attack other teenagers is shocking France and has found itself high on the political agenda.
The increase has given the right-wing nationalist party National Gathering momentum ahead of the upcoming EU elections.
The 15-year-old apprentice chef had no known criminal past. At the end of April, he was killed in a brawl in Châteauroux in central France. According to information in several media, the suspected perpetrator – a boy of the same age – is of foreign origin.
The case is one of several where young people have attacked other young people in France recently. The increased violence has sparked dismay and anger – and has attracted further support for parties that are sharply critical of the government’s immigration policy.
Far-right party National Assembly party leader Jordan Bardella calls the killed 15-year-old the latest victim of a lousy migration policy that endangers the French people.
“I urge you to never get used to the unacceptable,” he writes on X.
Cross-party consultation
Bardella, who succeeded Marine Le Pen as party leader, is 28 years old.
– For young people, he represents the future of France, says one of his supporters to the AFP news agency.
Emmanuel Macron’s coalition government is now trying to reclaim the initiative from conservative and far-right parties on the issue of recent youth violence.
“Increased mobilization”
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal presented after another 15-year-old was beaten to death in early April “increased mobilization” against youth violence, Le Monde reports. The measures include, among other things, consultation across party lines to “reestablish contact with the teenagers and curb the violence”.
In a speech outside the town hall in Viry-Châtillon, south of Paris, he raised, among other things, the question of whether minors should in some cases be denied a sentence discount because of their age. The statement has been criticized, including by Unicef France, which believes that Attal is jeopardizing previous progress in juvenile correctional services.
Gil Avérous, mayor of Châteauroux, says the parents of the 15-year-old who was killed in the town do not want their son’s death to be used for political gain. At the same time, he himself sees an “urgent need” to change the policy in the area.
– Both the perpetrator and the victim are 15 years old. For me, this is proof of barbarism and extreme violence that our society can see among minors, he told AFP.