(Paris) For his hundredth day at the head of government, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal called on Thursday for a “real burst of authority”, targeting in particular the “addiction to violence” of part of the youth .
For this “discourse on authority at the heart of the Republic”, Mr. Attal had chosen Viry-Châtillon, in the southern suburbs of Paris, a town marked by the death of a 15-year-old teenager, beaten nearly his college.
In this case which, along with others, aroused great emotion in France, four young men, three minors and one adult, were indicted for murder. They were all placed in pre-trial detention.
Mr. Attal called for the “general mobilization of the nation to reconnect with its adolescents” and “curb violence”, giving himself eight weeks to complete “collective work” on this subject.
“There are twice as many adolescents involved in assault and battery, four times more in drug trafficking, and seven times more in armed robberies than in the general population,” listed the Prime Minister.
Among the provisions announced, more time spent in college, disruptive students who will be “sanctioned” in obtaining their diplomas, or even the development of measures to regulate screen addiction.
A little more than three months after his appointment, the former Minister of Education intends to follow his general policy declaration.
He then returned to the urban riots which engulfed the country at the start of the summer of 2023 after the death of a young man, killed by a police officer in the Paris region during a road check.
While “the violence of last July deeply marked our country”, with among the rioters “young people (…) who seemed to have already cut ties with our society”, “we must enforce authority everywhere: in the classrooms , in families, in the streets,” he explained on January 30 before the National Assembly.
Before launching his slogan “you break, you repair, you dirty, you clean, you challenge authority, we teach you to respect it”.
In the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, Emmanuel Macron asked his government to embark on a major consultation to find solutions to the “emergence of ultraviolence”, particularly among the youngest. It is up to the Prime Minister to launch this consultation, with parliamentary groups and various stakeholders, with the aim of arriving at a bill before the summer.
“Difficult and radical” decisions
As he explained during his recent trip to Canada, Mr. Attal should recall his method: demonstrate “lucidity” and even “recognize” what has worked or not since 2017 then “make potentially” difficult decisions and radical” and “above all, implement them”.
Called to succeed Élisabeth Borne on January 9, the youngest head of government of the Ve République, aged 35, has already experienced several ordeals, starting with the farmers’ crisis, not yet completely resolved despite unprecedented concessions from the government which in turn aroused the anger of environmental organizations.
The deterioration of the budgetary situation, with a first round of ten billion euros in savings and an exercise to be repeated before the summer, also promises to tense the political debate, including within the majority. As for the right, it threatens the government with a motion of censure on this issue.
Gabriel Attal nevertheless intends to continue his reform projects, with his priority given to “work” and the “middle classes”, in particular by planning to once again tighten the conditions for unemployment compensation.
In this context, and less than two months before the European elections on June 9, the list of the presidential camp led by Valérie Hayer continues to be left behind in the polls by the far right led by Jordan Bardella of the National Rally (RN). She even sees her lead reduced significantly with the PS-Place Publique list led by Raphaël Glucksmann.
reference: www.lapresse.ca