The fall of the burned belfry of the Limoges town hall alone sums up the state of France. With him, it was a bit like the Republic that we had the impression of seeing fall. A Republic where authority is abused, insulted, trampled on by decivilized individuals. A long series of resignations explains this bankruptcy. At school, of course, where the student has replaced the teacher, where effort and demands have become suspect. On public roads, where the police are likened to an enemy gang that prevents drug trafficking and kills. Faced with immigration and its consequences too, today out of control, about which it is forbidden to talk, under penalty of being accused of fascism.
However, it is not enough to be born in Paris, Lyon or Marseille to respect and share the values and culture of our country. Is this the breeding ground of the “new France” sung by Jean-Luc Mélenchon? The days of October 17 and 18 demonstrated the convergence of hatred expressed by the followers of the black flag and by the delinquent scum - who we must stop calling "opportunistic", Mr. Minister of the Interior.
Also read Yves Thréard’s editorial: “Faced with the convergence of hatred, the State in danger”
“Either you realize how dangerous you are, or you stay on the barbecue and it will hurt,” warns the president of 23-3, the criminal chamber of the Paris judicial court, where the very first immediate appearances take place after October 17. In the box, massive build in a black t-shirt, MG is clever and strings together answers that have nothing to do with the questions. Coming from Tours on the morning of the 17th, he was caught with, in his backpack, nine small empty vials, 90 proof alcohol, plenty of tow and three lighters. “A Molotov cocktail in pieces,” the public prosecutor summed up a little later.
For the moment, the 21-year-old young man is not giving up: “It was to have a barbecue at a friend’s house in the 11th, for my birthday. » The president gets angry: “Your trial is now, not in two hours, not in two years. » “It’s because I didn’t have time to change my backpack before leaving for Paris,” he says. On the screen, the court watches two videos which are a gag: MG is filmed carrying out tests the day before, at night, in front of a railway track: we see him lighting the tow stuck in a bottle and waiting for it to ignite. Then a voice-over says “come on, go ahead, it’s okay”, before the “inflammable and explosive device” is launched, as described in article 322-11 of the penal code. The latter breaks and goes out instantly on the other side of the barbed wire. A smile runs through the courtroom. “My goal was not to hurt people,” replies the young defendant, with no criminal record, and a former firefighter. “My arms are falling,” sighs the president. The prosecutor requires “10 months in prison, adjustable ab initio”.
This case - only four appearances before the Paris criminal court for Monday - is not the most representative of the profiles who carried out the rampages of October 17. The Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, underlined this: the vast majority of individuals arrested are almost exclusively men - around 80% -, aged 18 to 30, many of whom have criminal records. We could also add that they are almost exclusively young urban people.
Also read Who are the ultra-violent thugs of October 17 really?
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu will travel to Limoges on Friday, the scene of violent demonstrations which resulted in the burning of the town hall, Matignon announced on Monday.
The belfry of Limoges Town Hall collapsed on Saturday after demonstrators set it on fire.
The police “lacked resources” and “backed down” in the face of the thugs, “in Limoges as in other cities,” lambasted its mayor Guillaume Guérin (LR), demanding from the government “a Marshall plan” and “a rain of millions” to rebuild the town hall, and judging that “the State has failed”.
In a letter sent on Sunday to Guillaume Guérin, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu promised that the town hall would be rebuilt with the help of the State “because it is the symbol of a Nation which does not allow itself to be defeated or intimidated”.
The Minister of the Interior Laurent Nuñez, who came to Marseille on Monday evening to speak with the mayor (DVG) Benoît Payan, promised him more law enforcement next Saturday to supervise the next demonstration.
“We will deploy a very large police force which will in any case be more numerous than there was last Saturday,” the minister announced to the press, after an interview of more than 45 minutes with the mayor of the second largest city in France who had forcefully demanded his arrival.
Before Mr. Payan, who had questioned the nature of the orders given to the police last Saturday in Marseille and deplored their insufficient number, demanding "accounts", the minister assured that their "employment will be done (in the future) a lot in mobility, in extreme reactivity, taking into account the fact that we have groups of thugs who have taken action at many points".
During the violence and looting in the Marseille city, “there could be up to 10 or 15 points at the same time with groups of sometimes 200 people, so it is obviously extremely difficult to contain,” underlined the minister.
The local Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) counted on Monday “500 impacted businesses, including 317 damaged and looted” in France’s second city. The police made 101 arrests, including 74 adults and 27 minors, in the city following Saturday's violence, the prosecutor's office said on Monday.
