With another night in which 45,000 police and national guardsmen took to the streets of France to deal with the riots sparked by the death of the young Nahel in France, the country’s mayors have yet to account for the damage suffered in the territories that they manage
A meeting is scheduled for this Tuesday between the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and 220 mayors of the most affected towns, including Aulnay-sous-Bois, where the Portuguese Paulo Marques performs municipal functions.
The also president of the Association of Portuguese Mayors in France explains, in TSFthat the damage to the municipality that it helps manage “is immense” and includes “burnt buses and a cultural center.”
The damage occurred “in two nights, basically” and by the third you could already feel “a decrease.” This was helped, he explains, by the “mobility and intervention” of the municipality “and of all the forces on the ground” and the “fact of not being able to move around the city after 9:00 p.m.”.
The mayors want to try to understand, together with the French president, what decisions will be made to mitigate the damage, but Paulo Marques even suggests that at this meeting “the book of proposals requested by the President of the Republic from Jean Louis Borloo be returned to open” in 2017, when Macron asked the former minister to draw up a plan to rehabilitate the French suburbs.
“After the presentation of these recommendations, nothing was done and we believe that we have to face each situation with pragmatism. Each municipality, each district, each region has its specificity, it cannot be included in a single initiative. There are several problems. There are several factors, ranging from education to training, it also involves social problems of food, with the increase in prices in France, as in all the countries of the European Union”, warns the Portuguese representative.
Above all, Paulo Marques hopes that “those wishes” will be answered “quickly”, which are not only from the mayors, but also “from the citizens”.
This Monday, the French Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, announced that the priority is “to ensure a return to republican order, which implies maintaining the security device for the night ahead” after receiving the political groups that make up the two Chambers of the French Parliament. parliament.
At the same time, the Paris region’s transport authority made public a first estimate of the damage caused by the urban protests of the last few nights, admitting “at least 20 million euros of damage”.
In this balance, it is necessary to include “the burned buses, a burned tram, two damaged trams and destroyed street furniture,” the Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) regional authority told the AFP news agency, confirming information. from the newspaper Le Parisien.
In all, 39 buses have been set on fire since the riots began. Each vehicle of this type is valued at 350,000 euros.
The IDFM recalled that tonight the circulation of transport will be interrupted again from 9:00 p.m. (local time), a measure that has been in force for several days.
Several venues for sporting events, especially in Ile-de-France, are at the heart of sensitive neighborhoods, which have seen tension grow after the death of 17-year-old de Nahel, shot last Tuesday by a police officer in an operation of traffic. .
In five consecutive nights of riots, until early Sunday morning, there were, among other acts of violence, around 5,000 vehicles set on fire, almost 1,000 buildings totally or partially destroyed, 250 attacks on police stations and more than 700 security members.
Recorded by an amateur video that contradicts the initial story told by the police, the point-blank shot that an officer fired at the young man in Nanterre (on the outskirts of Paris), on June 27, shocked the country, unleashing a wave of protests. . violence. , which had repercussions far beyond the French borders.
In recent nights, riots sparked by the Nanterre incident have led to the arrest of more than 3,200 people across France, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said during a visit to the city of Reims.
The police officer suspected of the young man’s death is charged with murder and is in custody.
Source: TSF
