In insensitve comments, Macron holds children of single parents responsible for French riots

In what is being seen as insensitive comments, President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday (August 3) that France is facing an “immense” challenge most of the youngers who were prosecuted over riots this summer were either in social care or had single-parent families.

The violence erupted in the month of June after 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk was shot dead by a traffic police officer in a car in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.

Macron, in an interview with Le Figaro’s weekly magazine, said the figure reflected a decline of trust among youth in schoolteachers, parents and also in democratic institutions. It also underlined a breakdown of authority.

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The comments made by Macron were an attempt to flesh out Elysée’s view which hold the failure of parental guidance as the reason for the worst urban violence in France for 18 years.

Macron stated that the episode emphasised a “crisis of civilisation” and the “deregulation” of Western societies. He further refuted the populist right’s claims that the riots were a result of immigration, mainly from France’s former African colonies.

French riots

In the wake of the police killing, protesters set ablaze or vandalised 12,031 cars and 2,508 buildings, which included 258 police stations and 243 schools, and about 800 officers were injured.

Around 3,505 people were arrested and 1,056 were imprisoned. A third of the arrests made included rioters who were below the age of 18. The youngest one was 11 years old.

Minors form majority of rioters

“Almost 75 per cent of the minors [sent for trial] were either in social care or from single-parent families. This is an immense challenge because [the child rioters] are the society of tomorrow,” said Macron.

He stated that the government authorities should take more steps to help single parents in educating their children. “We must accompany these families, give far more means, prepare them better, and at the same time make them more responsible,” he added.

He stated that the parents of children who had committed offences need to be punished but stopped short of supporting right-wing calls for stopping the welfare benefits of such people. This move would only “make the problem worse”, he stated.

The president further pledged to counter the “unravelling of families” by restoring “democratic authority”, but also “authority in school” and “parental authority”.

“We can’t be a nation if we don’t have confidence in . . . the authorities, in one’s parents, in one’s teachers,” he stated.

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