Via the NYT: 10 Officers Shot as Riots Worsen in French Cities
Rioters fired shotguns at the police in a working-class suburb of Paris on Sunday, wounding 10 officers as the country’s fast-spreading urban unrest escalated dangerously. Just hours earlier, President Jacques Chirac called an emergency meeting of top security officials and promised increased police pressure to confront the violence.[...]
Most people said they sensed that the escalation of the past few days had changed the rules of the game: besides the number of attacks, the level of destruction has grown sharply, with substantial businesses and public buildings going down in flames. Besides the gunfire on Sunday, residents of some high-rise apartment blocks have been throwing steel boccie balls and improvised explosives at national riot police officers patrolling below.
In the Parisian suburb of Aubervilliers early Sunday, with smoke hanging in the air and a helicopter humming overhead, a helmeted police officer in a flak jacket carried a soft drink bottle gingerly away from where it had landed near him and his colleagues moments before. The bottle, half-filled with a clear liquid and nails, had failed to explode.
I don’t know enough about French politics and society, nor about crowd control, to draw any diret conclusions, but the situation comes across as wholly out of control with the French government seemingly confused as to how to deal with the situation.
Specifically, the end of the piece indicates tension between the Prime Minister (Villepin) and the Interior Minister (Sarkozy) over how to respond, with Villepin taking the softer line, and Sarkozy the harder one:
Mr. Villepin, a former foreign minister, has focused on a more diplomatic approach, consulting widely with community leaders and young second-generation immigrants to come up with a promised “action plan” that he said would address frustrations in the underprivileged neighborhoods. He has released no details of the plan.Sphere: Related Content
November 7th, 2005 at 10:09 am
Chirac Draws a Line in the Sand (Sort Of)
Molly Moore reports for the Washington Post that Chirac Speaks Out on Riots: On 11th Day of Unrest, French President Vows to Restore Order. Chirac promised the rioters will be arrested, tried, and punished for their actions. Unfortunately, to this
November 7th, 2005 at 12:35 pm
Well, one thing about French politics to consider is that Sarkozy and de Villepin are not only both members of the current cabinet (Interior Minister and Premier, respectively, as noted in the passage quoted above), but more importantly they are rivals for the right’s presidential nomination to succeed Chirac.
Presumably they are staking out different positions in part because they are courting somewhat different constituencies within the right.
The label the right is using these days is very telling as to what it stands for: The Union for a Presidential Majority.
Yep, that’s it. They want the president to have a majority (as long as the president is from the right, that is. Will they change its name to Union pour la Cohabitación if the left wins the presidency?).