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France’s PM unveils plan to prevent more riots

Following the rioting that rocked French towns and cities in June, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has unveiled her plan to tackle urban unrest, including military schools and compulsory courses for parents whose children cause trouble.

Published: 26 October 2023 18:49 CEST
Updated: 27 October 2023 08:45 CEST

France's PM unveils plan to prevent more riots

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne delivers a speech to present security measures in response to the urban riots in June. Photo by Thomas SAMSON / POOL / AFP

In late June, France saw almost a week of nightly rioting in which buildings and cars were set ablaze, stores looted and young people engaged in running battles with the police.

The riots followed the death of a 17-year-old boy in a police traffic stop – and the emergence of a video that revealed that police officers had lied about what happened.

On Thursday PM Elisabeth Borne – speaking to an audience of local mayors – unveiled plans to tackle the violence including ‘military’ schools, tougher penalties for the parents of delinquent teenagers and a €100 million fund to repair the damage caused during the riots.

Because many of the June rioters were very young – three quarters of those arrested were under 25 and a fifth were still in school – the focus has fallen on parents and schools.

Borne announced the creation of “parenting courses” for parents whose children persistently cause trouble, as well as community service sentences for parents who have “failed in their educational duties”. Parents would also be financially liable for damage caused by their children.

“When a minor has caused damage, we must ensure that both parents are financially responsible for the damage caused, whether they are together or not, whether they live with the child or not,” she said.

In France, under 18s are very rarely jailed, but they can be sent to residential schools – Borne announced that she is considering changing the law to allow young people to be placed in residential schools run by “the judicial youth protection services”.

She also spoke of supervision by “military personnel” – although provided no concrete details.

Borne announced that Forces d’action républicaine (republican action forces) will be deployed in troubled areas – a combined team including police and magistrates but also social workers and healthcare staff that can work with troubled families to restore order and provide help where needed.

They will be deployed at the request of local authorities.

Her speech also announced

In cases where a curfew is imposed by local authorities – as several areas did during the riots – the maximum penalty for breaking the curfew will be raised from €150 to €750.
The time spent on civics education at collège (secondary school) level will be doubled, while schools can reopen in August for pupils who are having difficulties.
Municipal police – a lower level of police who do not have powers of arrest – will be given extra powers

Borne also revealed that of the rioters arrested, three quarters were under the age of 25, and a fifth were still in school.

She added that three quarters of them were born in France, one third had not finished school and the children of single-parent families were “strongly represented”.

She said: “This indicated a worrying normalisation of violence and a more general breakdown of authority.”

Member comments

Anonymous - 28 October 2023 at 01:31 CEST

I don’t believe the military is trained or interested in rehabilitating delinquent youth – is that really the solution for disaffected youth? Entrusting these children to the military is a recipe for mistreatment and abuse. Sending delinquents to a school where they can receive the structure and attention to become good, productive citizens – whether a military school or otherwise – is a better solution.

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Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.