World News: France Reels from Six Days of Riots

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Tuesday, 04 July 2023 09:31

Written by Olivier Longhi

The murder of Nahel M. combined with the urban riots plunged France into a crisis of regime and, unprecedentedly, into a crisis of legitimacy where the Republic is shaken in its foundations, its symbols, and its institutions.

After the episode of the pension reform that had pushed the country into a crisis of regime, now the urban riots following the homicide of Nahel M. not only generate a new one but also give birth to a crisis of legitimacy likely to alter, even to question for some rioters, the Republic itself.

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Affected within it because it involves the police, discredited in their action by the act committed by the brigadier author of the fatal shooting on Nahel M., but also by the damage that affected public buildings, town halls in this case, the Fifth Republic is certainly going through some of the most destabilizing trials in its history.

First of all, it is a crisis of the regime because it confronts the executive with almost unprecedented responsibilities, namely to simultaneously ensure the most absolute justice in the case of the homicide of the teenager, not to give in to the sirens of blind authoritarianism by a disproportionate repression that would be misinterpreted to the point of multiplying current tensions, and to ensure the maintenance of republican order in respect of institutions.

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Jaurès, Clemenceau and the Abyss

And the Jaurès-Clemenceau debate to resurface, he who in 1906, had opposed the two men, the first defending legitimate workers' demonstrations on the merits, the second defending public order and in the name of republican institutions.

For between affect and law, passion and reason, there is a gap that continues to widen, worked even more by the culture of appearance and superficiality that has become omnipotent. Then there is a crisis of legitimacy because the rapprochement of social crises, such as the one we are currently experiencing, is inversely proportional to the respect and confidence in the Republic by some of our fellow citizens.

The abyss, because it is no longer a question of gap, which exists between certain minority fringes of the population totally "derepublicanized" and the rest of the population is at the heart of this episode.

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Animated by a feeling of impunity, nourished by fantasized and conspiratorial speeches conveyed by social networks, in complete rupture with the citizenship taught by the School moreover totally discredited in its action, this population, out of school or breaking with the school system or escaping any parental control, today confronts the State, grafting on the death of Nahel M. to show its exacerbated mistrust of the Republic and the authority it has embodies but also of the State and all its attributes whatever they are (School, Force of Order, Town Halls ,...).

Pavlovians and the World Apart

In a form of rejection of institutions that few of them know and face by Pavlovian reflexes of narrow-minded protest, these fringes of the population capable of terrorizing entire urban neighborhoods, defy the State and the Republic.

But if the contestation of the State and order remain among the first motivations, these ultimately prove superficial; The essential roots are certainly to be found in a form of ignorance, ignorance, and mediocrity to which is added a misunderstanding of the socio-political system in which they live without finding their place. Evolving in a world apart, itself articulated around its own laws and territories considered as removed from the Republic, these populations try to break common republican landmarks, thus spreading the seeds of a civil war for the moment in gestation.

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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist, recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, a press and publishing consultant, and a communications consultant.