France riots: Macron meeting with mayors after night of relative calm
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Transcript
00:00 is at the Elysee Palace ahead of that meeting. He joins me now on
00:06 the line. Clovis, tell us, what is this meeting about? What might he
00:12 hear? What might he say? President Emmanuel Macron has decided to invite
00:20 some 200 mayors from all different kinds of parties. You have the
00:24 mayor of Lyon, Green Party, Gregory Doucet. You have members of the far
00:30 right, such as Robert Minard from the south of France, from the town of
00:33 Béziers. The Elysee Palace tells us there won't be any announcement,
00:37 statement, decisions made today. It is really for Emmanuel Macron a way to
00:42 listen to those mayors who found themselves on the front line these
00:46 past few days. We spoke to one of the mayors who is going to be attending
00:51 this meeting. He tells us he wants more financial means. He wants the
00:56 French government to listen to the mayors, put money into the towns. He
01:02 also tells us that local police had to step in because national police
01:09 wasn't present in those towns. This mayor is the mayor of a town in the
01:15 French suburbs, in the Paris suburbs, sorry. Some of the towns the most
01:20 affected by the violence and the clashes between very young rioters
01:25 and police forces. Emmanuel Macron wants to get the feeling among these
01:32 mayors, try to see how he can improve the situation. No announcement now,
01:37 but some reforms could be coming in the coming weeks. President Emmanuel
01:42 Macron, who was overnight visiting a police station in Paris to listen
01:47 again to police forces and show his support, thanked them for what they
01:52 did in trying to contain the violence, the fierce clashes with rioters in
01:58 recent days. The violence does, as you say, appear to be abating. Is there
02:05 a mood that Macron and his government are now through the worst and they
02:10 can look to dealing with this in the future? It does seem that way in any
02:17 case. Less arrests last night, less clashes, and it does seem also that
02:23 the French people as a whole are not tolerating at all the shocking images
02:29 of looting, of rioters smashing windows, targeting even small shops all
02:36 across the country. That has also changed the way people are seeing this
02:42 movement. At first, of course, it was widely agreed that the 38-year-old
02:48 policeman who shot dead the young man had acted unlawfully. That is what
02:53 the French government said and that was widely accepted in French society.
02:57 But now it does seem there is very little tolerance for the looting
03:01 taking place. The authorities, mayors also, have been calling parents to
03:07 act responsibly, to make sure that their children, because one third of
03:11 the arrests are teenagers, people who are under 18 who have been taking
03:16 part in these clashes and in the violence. These parents have been
03:20 starting to, in some parts of France, organise groups, go out at night to
03:25 tell young people to stop causing violence and looting. So there is a
03:32 change there, but of course we will have to wait and see in the coming
03:36 days to see if the violence continues or if it stops. OK, we will leave it
03:41 there and we will be hearing from you no doubt later in the day. Thanks
03:45 very much. Clovis Kassali there speaking to us from in front of the
03:49 Elysee Palace.