France riots: Mayors hold rallies calling for end to violence

Prime Minister says 45,000 police and gendarmes will remain on streets until at least Tuesday night 'to ensure return to order'

Vincent Jeanbrun, centre, the mayor of L'Hay-les-Roses, during Monday's rally after an attack on his house in the south of Paris. EPA

Mayors across France called for an end to the unrest that erupted after a teenager was shot dead by police last week, as incidences of overnight violence fell by half in the past 24 hours, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

There were rallies at town halls across France on Monday as residents stood behind their local governments.

Riots and looting have spread across the country since Nahel M, 17, was killed by an officer during a traffic stop on Tuesday, adding fuel to long-standing accusations of racism against the French police.

There were calls for a “return to republican order” at the demonstrations on Monday after the home of the mayor of a Paris suburb was rammed by a burning car, prompting anger.

“Democracy itself has been attacked … this can't continue and it won't,” said Vincent Jeanbrun, the conservative mayor of L'Hay-les-Roses, south of Paris, whose home was attacked on Sunday.

On Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said 72 people were arrested overnight around France, including 24 in and around Paris, and 24 buildings were burnt or damaged.

In total, 159 vehicles had been set ablaze, and 202 fires set in rubbish bins or elsewhere in public areas, according to a statement.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said 45,000 police and gendarmes would be kept on the streets until Tuesday night at the earliest.

“The priority is to ensure the return to order,” Ms Borne said.

A total of 157 people were arrested over Sunday night to Monday – a fraction of the number held the night before. Three police officers were hurt.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the average age of the 3,200 people arrested since the rioting began was 17, although some were “children, there is no other word, of 12 or 13".

“The nights have been tough for residents since Tuesday,” when Nahel was killed, said Patrick Jarry, the mayor of Nanterre, just west of Paris where the young man of Algerian descent lived and died.

“The string of violent episodes is unacceptable,” Mr Jarry said, calling for calm.

France riots – in pictures

All bus and tram services in the Paris region remain suspended from 9pm.

A collection for the family of the policeman who fired the fatal shot and is now charged with voluntary manslaughter has topped €1 million ($1.1 million).

Politicians from the ruling centrist party condemned the collection, which was organised by a far-right figure, as “indecent” and dangerous.

Ms Borne said the fund “probably does not help restore calm”.

“Killing a young North African in France in 2023 can earn you a lot of money,” tweeted hard-left MP Mathilde Panot.

Mr Jeanbrun's home was hit with a burning car. His wife broke her leg as she escaped with her children, aged five and seven.

The attack was widely condemned, with prosecutors opening an attempted murder investigation.

“I never would have imagined that my family would be threatened with death,” Mr Jeanbrun told French TV.

Nadia, the grandmother of Nahel, said on Sunday that rioters were only using his death as a “pretext” and called for calm.

Although the violence appears to be diminishing, questions remain about the event that sparked it.

Investigators on Monday began interviewing a passenger in the car Nahel was driving without a licence, a security source told AFP.

Some urged that lessons need to be learnt from the unrest, which was the worst in France since the death of two youths fleeing police in 2005 sparked three weeks of rioting.

“I can't support people smashing and burning things, who would?” said Fatiha Abdouni, 52, founder of a women's association in Nanterre.

Nevertheless, “now we have to listen to the young people, their frustration and anger,” Ms Abdouni said.

Youths in Paris's deprived suburbs face “daily difficulties, unequal access to study, to work, to housing”, she said. She said only the “spark” of Nahel's death was needed to start the violence.

Tens of millions of euros in emergency support has been released to repair public buildings and small businesses around Paris and in two other regions.

The rioting caused about €20 million in damage to public transport in the Paris area, the regional operator said Monday. This included dozens of burnt buses and a torched tramway.

The Medef business association estimated damage of “over a billion euros” to companies, with more than 200 businesses looted and 300 bank offices destroyed.

The protests present another crisis for President Emmanuel Macron, who had been hoping to press on with pledges for his second term after seeing off months of demonstrations that began in January over raising the retirement age.

Mr Macron is scheduled to meet on Tuesday with the mayors of more than 220 towns hit by the unrest, the Elysee Palace said.

The latest violence has raised concerns abroad, with France hosting the Rugby World Cup in September and the Paris Olympic Games in 2024.