The riots throughout France have continued into their 12th night and the government of France is at least talking about cracking down.
PARIS, Nov. 7 — In a television address to the nation Monday night, France’s prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, announced his government’s new plan to curb riots that have spread to 300 French towns and cities in the last 12 days: 1,500 additional police officers on the streets, local curfews, parental intervention and more educational opportunities for students in affected suburbs.
Even as Villepin spoke, another night of violence broke out, as young men in the southern city of Toulouse set fire to a city bus and threw rocks at police officers. In the Paris suburbs, where the unrest began, rioters set fire to a junior high school and a hospital
Whether these efforts will be successful only time will tell, but, in the meantime, the French are starting to ask themselves why this is happening.
Confronted by the most dramatic social uprising since 1968, the government of France remains largely helpless against gangs of angry youths. The response is being crafted by a lame-duck president and an interior minister and a prime minister who are slugging it out to replace him.
While many French leaders depict the rioters as simple criminals, political and social analysts and many French citizens see the fires that are burning across the country as reflecting a growing identity crisis in a nation where social policies have not kept up with rapidly changing profiles in religion, race and ethnicity
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Most of the rioters are the French-born children of immigrants from Arab and African countries. A large percentage are Muslim. Their parents’ generation was invited to France as laborers who were expected to return home but didn’t. The new generation is coming of age in the midst of France’s worst economic slump in years and during a time when many in the country, which is culturally Christian but officially secular, are increasingly fearful of the growth of Islam inside its borders.
At present, the country has an estimated 6 million Muslims, most of African descent. The fear of losing France’s traditional white European identity fueled French voters’ rejection of the proposed European Union constitution last summer and has heightened French opposition to admitting Muslim Turkey into the E.U.
In other words, it is a clash between France’s European culture and its growing Arab/African/Muslim minority. This is a conflict that has been brewing in France and other parts of Europe for years, and it appears that the economic and social tensions inherent in what appears to be a failing French economic and political systems have brought those tensions to the forefront.
It also appears that the riots are beginning to have an impact on the how the French people feel about their leaders.
Some political analysts said government officials didn’t focus on the severity of the violence in its first days because many were on vacation or at their country houses celebrating the All Saints’ Day holiday. As they returned to their Paris offices the following Monday, the rioting was gaining momentum across the suburbs.
Still, President Jacques Chirac did not speak out publicly until Monday evening, the 12th night of violence. He made a three-minute appearance and vowed tough action against the perpetrators.
Its unclear what the political impact of continued rioting will be, but the possibility that it will only serve to increase resentment of immigrant groups among French citizens is certainly high. In that case, voters may flock to anti-immigrant politicans such as Jean-Marie Le Pen. Whether that happens or not, though, this issue will not go away even if the rioting does stop.
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