President Macron Promises Emergency Law To ‘Rebuild Much Faster’ After The Paris Riots

After a week of riots following the death of a 17-year-old boy in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, French President Emmanuel Macron headed a meeting at the Elysée Palace.

This Tuesday, July 4, the Head of State invited the mayors of the Paris municipalities most affected by the recent violence to reaffirm his support, understand the reasons for such a conflagration, and draw the first conclusions.

‘The peak that we have experienced in recent days has passed. Even if calm has returned, I consider that we cannot act as if nothing has happened’, argued the President.

Macron promised to approve an emergency law

While tensions appear to have stalled as the days go by. Macron promised to approve an emergency law that could be used to ‘rebuild much faster’.

A balance sheet presented by the Ministry of the Interior reported that in one week, 12,202 vehicles were burned. A total of 1,105 buildings were burned or damaged and 209 police and gendarmerie premises were attacked. From post offices to supermarkets, libraries and schools, no type of building, public or private, has been spared.

Vincent Jeanbrun, the mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses, was one of the mayors present at the Elysée Palace. The attack on his home and family last Sunday showed that a red line had been crossed. He was one of the 302 elected officials from the 500 invited who accepted Macron’s invitation.

Macron touched on the issue of disadvantaged neighbourhoods, suggesting that it was not limited to a question of public money.

He revealed that his long-term plan included projects such as the implementation of public policies and the relationship between the State and communities. There was also housing, justice for those underage, the role of social networks, and the responsibility of parents, he added.

Not all of the attendees were convinced by Macron’s plans

Not everybody present was convinced of Macron’s proposals, especially on the left. ‘It was a moment of useful collective therapy, with a method, a roadmap, and for the first time since 2017, an outstretched hand to the mayors’, said Philippe Rio, the communist mayor of the southern Paris suburb of Grigny in the Essonne department.

‘But, I don’t come away convinced, because I was waiting for a vision, a breath that takes everyone on board. There, the President of the Republic tells us that it is a problem of method, not means. Except that we urgently need to restore public services in our municipalities’, Rio added.

Also unconvinced was Ali Rabeh, the mayor of Trappes, who during the day denounced a government that was only interested in the suburbs ‘when they burn’ and called for ‘structural changes’ in public policies.

Officials from the right received Macron’s ideas more positively

On the right, however, the reception was more positive. ‘We were on the front line. Being received in stride at the Elysee Palace is a good thing’, said Manuel Aeschlimann, the mayor of Asnières-sur-Seine.

The city councillor remained cautious though: ‘Unlike 2005, we have entered a new phase of urban guerrilla warfare. The spark can be reignited with every dramatic event’, he stressed.

Speaking after the meeting, Roger Karoutchi, the senator from Hauts-de-Seine, commented: ‘There is immediately the high mass side, as after the ‘yellow vests’, with a citizen meeting or a meeting of elected officials. There are the sentences, but we have to know when the actions will take place’.

Emmanuel Macron promised the provide the city’s mayors with a progress report by the end of the summer, as reported by lesechos.fr.