Crowds across France show solidarity at town halls targeted in rioting following police shooting
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Transcript
00:00 We're joined now in this studio by our French politics editor, Marc Perelman.
00:05 Marc, so people are being asked to gather in front of city halls and town halls.
00:10 These are symbols of the French Republic and a number of symbols of the French Republic
00:17 have been attacked, set fire to during these riots.
00:21 Can you tell us what's going on here?
00:24 Well clearly there has been a shift.
00:26 First of all there was the shooting of this young Nahel which really prompted what we
00:34 saw in the last few days.
00:36 But in the last couple of days and since the attack on the home of the mayor of Les Leros,
00:44 like a suburban town near Paris, where his wife and kids were at the time and they were
00:51 injured, this created a totally different narrative whereby clearly politicians from
01:00 all across the aisle are saying, you know, this is not acceptable, this has nothing to
01:06 do with someone being shot to death, this is a totally different thing.
01:13 And this has had in a way a chilling effect probably on the protest because and even on
01:21 the way the politicians have positioned themselves because obviously saying that you're angry
01:27 because a youngster was killed by the police is not the same thing as ramming a car with
01:34 apparently some material inside to burn the house of a mayor who has nothing to do by
01:40 the way with what happened because he's the mayor of another city.
01:45 So this obviously has probably had a chilling effect on the violence, we've seen less violence
01:52 although there are still instances of violence and this probably also helps the government
01:57 because it changes the narrative.
02:00 There's a talk about now of defending the various symbols of the republic and the mayors
02:06 are also, and according to all the polls, the most popular politicians, much more popular
02:11 than president, than ministers, than MPs and because they are there every day on the ground
02:18 talking to people dealing with very, very local issue, bread and butter issues and so
02:24 attacking them is something that's opposed by a vast majority of the French people.
02:32 These gatherings called by the Association of Mayors in front of town halls, in front
02:37 of city halls today where numbers of people turned up, how significant do you think that
02:43 is?
02:44 Is it a turning point with ordinary people saying we oppose this and we will stand up
02:49 for our views?
02:51 This is unusual, yes, clearly, but then from what we've seen because it was today at noon
02:56 Paris time, those have been small gatherings where you have mostly officials speaking and
03:06 you haven't had lots of people coming out to support the mayors, but it is unusual and
03:14 what's also unusual is that 220 of them are going to meet the French president at the
03:22 Elysee.
03:23 It doesn't happen very often and Emmanuel Macron is seen as rather distant with his
03:28 ministers, with MPs and even more so with mayors because just to contextualize, there
03:35 have been a number of instances before the recent events where mayors have been attacked.
03:43 Just a few weeks ago, a mayor simply resigned because he couldn't take it anymore and we're
03:49 hearing mayors who are saying I'm not going to run again.
03:52 I mean I didn't sign up for this.
03:55 I didn't decide that I would spend my life protecting myself from violence and the violence,
04:02 we don't really know where it's coming from.
04:04 Some are saying it's far left, some are saying it's far right, others are saying it's just
04:09 gangsterism.
04:10 It's very, very difficult, but the mayors feel under threat and obviously the police
04:16 is very busy elsewhere, so there is a crisis, there is a security fear that you can really
04:22 sense among the mayors, that's why they're ringing the alarm, but there's also a concern
04:27 for should mayors really run for office if this means being under threat.
04:36 So this is really a new phenomenon that we're witnessing here in France.