President Emmanuel Macron has taken the decision to postpone his scheduled state visit to Germany as France braces itself for a potential fifth night of riots and looting following the police killing of a teenager. The cancellation of the meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is just one of the signs that the ongoing violence is undermining Macron's international agenda. Macron had already cut his attendance at a European Union summit short to return to France, only to be faced with another night of violent protests that resulted in more than 1,300 arrests.
A private funeral was held on Saturday in a suburb near Paris for the 17-year-old boy of North African descent whose death ignited the unrest. The situation has drawn comparisons with the protests that occurred in the US following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and is turning into a moment of reckoning for France.
In response to the escalating violence, the Interior Ministry is deploying additional police forces to Lyon and Marseille, where confrontations between the police and predominantly young demonstrators led to widespread damage to buildings and looting on Friday night, despite the presence of 45,000 officers across the country. Over 2,500 fires were reported, and hundreds of buildings were damaged.
The impact of the riots is particularly troubling for the French government, which has already faced months of protests against an unpopular pension reform law. These protests, which saw as many as 1.28 million people take to the streets in March, eventually dwindled down in May as labor unions acknowledged their inability to force Macron to backtrack on the reforms.
During the recent unrest, public buildings such as town halls, police stations, and libraries were targeted by rioters, and looting was reported in several major cities, including Marseille, Lyon, and Grenoble. Macron's planned visit to Germany was intended to ease tensions between the two largest economies in the eurozone and to discuss a range of issues, including energy, defense, and Ukraine's bid for EU membership.
In his efforts to address the situation, Macron has called on parents and social media platforms to help curb the violence. Additionally, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin met with representatives from Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta, urging them to remove any "illegal" messages inciting violence and insurrection. Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti has promised to take action against those responsible for posting content that encourages violence.
The unrest in France has brought attention to the country's policing practices and underlying tensions in its poorer suburbs. This situation is reminiscent of the riots that occurred in 2005 following the deaths of two boys in an electricity substation after a police chase. While Macron has not yet declared a state of emergency as was done in 2005, some events and gatherings have been canceled by authorities.
In an appeal for calm, soccer star Kylian Mbappe and several teammates from the Paris Saint-Germain football club issued a letter condemning the violence. They acknowledged their own backgrounds in poorer neighborhoods and understood the anger but emphasized that the destructive actions were ultimately hurting their own communities and families. "The time for violence has to stop and make way for grief, dialogue, and reconstruction," they wrote.