France is in danger of descending into anarchy

France endured its worst night of rioting yet on Thursday as violence continued across the country. For the third consecutive evening, youths went on the rampage in most major cities, despite the presence of 40,000 police. Shops were looted, town halls attacked, police stations firebombed and vehicles were hijacked in extraordinary scenes of urban warfare.

The police fought running battles with mobs and made 421 arrests, over half of which were in the capital. The epicentre of the anarchy was in Nanterre, in the west of the city, where on Tuesday morning 17-year-old Nahel was shot dead by police as he sped away from a traffic stop. 

The officer who fired the fatal shot has been charged with voluntary manslaughter and remanded in custody. ‘The public prosecutor’s office considers that the legal conditions for the use of the weapon have not been met,’ said the Nanterre public prosecutor at a press conference. 

The news did not calm the mood among thousands of people who attended a march in the memory of Nahel on Thursday afternoon. Some called for ‘justice’ and others scrawled the word ‘vengeance’ on walls; before the march had ended cars were on fire and rocks were being hurled at the police.

Parts of France are now a dangerous place for the police and also for reporters. Journalists from France 2, the State broadcaster, were threatened at the march on Thursday afternoon; and in the evening, two reporters from Le Figaro were attacked in separate incidents; one, in Nanterre, required hospital treatment after he was beaten up and robbed. 

According to Le Figaro, a police officer has described the situation in France as a ‘climate of insurrection’. This is also how many politicians on the right see it, and there were demands on Thursday from Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, the centre-right Republicans and Eric Zemmour’s Reconquest for the declaration of a State of Emergency. On their own initiative the mayors of several Parisian suburbs imposed a curfew on Thursday evening, which will remain in place until Monday. 

The violence could not have erupted at a worse time for the authorities: at the height of summer in the middle of a heatwave, and with the school holidays about to start. Across France there are many thousands of youths with time on their hands and anger in their hearts; the next few days could see the ‘insurrection’ intensify.

France desperately needs strong leadership but it is not being provided by either president Macron or his prime minister, Elisabeth Borne. Both have angered the police with remarks that appeared to pre-judge the actions of the officer who fired the fatal shot; now a photograph has emerged showing Macron and his wife, Brigitte, enjoying themselves at an Elton John concert in Paris on Wednesday evening as the capital burned. 

What was Macron thinking? Did neither he nor his advisors consider the ‘optics’ of such a night out? Evidently not, but the photograph has gone viral on social media and stoked further anger on the left and the right. 

One might say Macron is in danger of losing control of his country, but the bitter truth is that he’s never been in control. Since he was elected president in May 2017, France has lurched from one crisis to another: the Yellow Vest uprising in 2018, the first wave of pension reform protests in 2019, his draconian handling of Covid and then the anger that erupted on the streets this spring after his government forced through his unpopular retirement bill. 

Macron’s trouble is that he’s a technocrat from top to toe. He’s good with details but not people; he is very intelligent but he lacks empathy; he is articulate but unable to engage with the masses. He is the polar opposite of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

Only one month separates the two leaders in age, but in background the chasm is huge. Unlike Macron, who was groomed from a young age in his country’s elite institutions, Zelenskyy lived for years in the real world, earning his living as a comedian and an actor before entering politics in 2018. 

When Russian invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Zelenskyy swiftly emerged as a charismatic and inspiring leader. The American academic Michael Useem, professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania, explained in an interview that Zelensky has ‘leadership presence’.

‘He’s not just there to appear, he’s not just there to show the flag. He’s there to make a case….this is a time to step forward and not shrink from, and Zelenskyy has demonstrated that in spades,’ said Useem.

Emmanuel Macron does not have this gift. He doesn’t inspire his people, he angers them, and this rage is now everywhere in France.