French police have arrested [9] more than 3,000 protesters in unrest that has spread since the fatal police shooting [10] of 17-year-old delivery worker Nahel Merzouk, the son of immigrants from Algeria and Morocco, during a traffic stop [11] in the Paris suburb of Nanterre June 27. The Ministry of the Interior has mobilized [12] some 45,000 police troops and gendarmes, as fierce clashes with police have spread across the country. On July 2, rioters rammed a burning car [15] into the home of the mayor of Paris suburb L'Haÿ-les-Roses. Merzouk's grandmother later pleaded [16] with protesters to stop the violence. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued an appeal to French authorities, writing [17]: "This is a moment for the country to seriously address the deep issues of racism and discrimination in law enforcement… Any allegations of disproportionate use of force must be swiftly investigated." The officer who fired the shot that killed Merzouk has been taken into custody on charges of voluntary homicide. (Jurist [18])
The French far right is meanwhile baiting President Emmanuel Macron for what they portray as a weak response to the uprising. Marine Le Pen [19] of the Rassemblement National [20] (formerly the Front National) issued an inflammatory video statement [13] warning of "anarchy" and calling for a state of emergency to be declared if the riots do not subside.
Marion Maréchal, Le Pen's niece and a former Front National parliamentarian now working with anti-immigrant politician Eric Zemmour [21], has repeatedly invoked "civil war." In one comment reported by Le Figaro [22], she said: "Every time the state backs down from these urban guerrillas, it's one step closer to civil war."
Maréchal added in a video statement [23] released on Twitter: "[W]e are in a state of civil war. The security forces complain that they do not have enough ammunition to intervene. At this rate, French citizens will have to take on the task of protecting themselves. The French can no longer tolerate their businesses being looted, their cars being burned and their relatives being attacked." (Turkiye [24])
France has seen repeated similar youth uprisings in recent years—in 2012 [25], in 2007 [26], in 2006 [27] (twice [28]), and most significantly in 2005 [29].
