by Jeremy Stubbs, spiked
The arson, assaults and violence tearing through the banlieues speak to a society on the brink.
Just over a week ago, the French, inspired by the visit of Leo XIV, were apparently communing in peace and harmony. Around 800,000 turned out on the streets of central Paris to hear the Pope celebrate an open-air mass. But as the papal plane took off from Metz in north-eastern France, the last stop on Leo’s trip, France was descending into a week of chaos and violence.
Teenage school pupils launched a wave of protests that spread across the country. Demonstrations rapidly turned ugly, leading to clashes with the police, assaults on teachers and extensive vandalism of not only street furniture but also school buildings and amenities. By the end of last week, more than 1,000 lycées (sixth-form colleges) and collèges (middle schools) had been affected. More than 5,000 individuals had been detained by police, mostly but not all minors. Over 300 police officers were injured last Thursday alone, by which time 65 schoolteachers and principals, as well as 170 pupils, had also suffered injury.
The most extensive damage was done by fire, accidentally or not. On Thursday, an international lycée in Nantes was ravaged by flames. The fact that it bore the name of Nelson Mandela did not protect it. On Friday morning, the inhabitants of Metz awoke to find that a local collège had suffered a similar fate.