De Villepin Attacked For Imposing Riot Law
By-Peggy Hollinger in Paris
November 8 2005

Dominique de Villepin, France's Prime Minister, was accused on Tuesday of losing his sang-froid after resorting to a state of emergency to quell riots that have set the suburbs of France's biggest cities alight during the past 12 days.

Le Monde, the Newspaper of France's Political Elite, accused the Prime Minister of sending a message of "Staggering Brutality" to the youth of the suburbs, who are for the most part children and grandchildren of African immigrants.

By invoking a law created in 1955 to put down unrest during the Algerian War of Independence, Le Monde said, Mr. de Villepin had "lost his sang-froid" and was sending the message that "France intends to treat them [the French-born children of immigrants] as it did their grandparents. The Prime Minister should remember that this spiral of incomprehension, of martial fever and powerlessness has driven the Republic to its worst setbacks."

Mr. de Villepin, speaking yesterday to deputies in an emergency parliamentary debate on the crisis, said the French Republic was facing its "moment of truth...what is in question today is the effectiveness of our model of integration."

The government has struggled to put down the most serious wave of riots since the student unrest of 1968. The law will allow local authorities to impose a curfew, restrict movement and launch raids on residences day or night where it is deemed necessary.

One man has died and 6,000 cars have been torched during the riots, which began after two boys from immigrant families died in an apparent attempt to escape police.

The unrest became a stark symbol of France's failure to integrate the minority communities, most of which live in the bleak suburbs of France's cities, and where the jobless rate among young people is often two or three times the national average.

While France's political parties support the government's decision to impose a state of emergency to restore order-albeit with some reservations-a number of deputies and mayors said yesterday they would refuse to implement the measures.

Andre Labarrere, a Socialist Senator and Mayor of the South-Western City of Pau, said he was "totally opposed" to the state of emergency. "It is a form of discrimination that will be very badly received."

Jean-Marc Ayrault President of the Socialist Party, said the opposition was prepared to accept the measures because of the urgent need to restore order. However, he warned against using the state of emergency, which will be in place for the next 12 days, as a smokescreen to cover up deeper social problems.

It was "first and foremost a social state of emergency," he said. "The young people in revolt are the lost children of a liberal society."

The criticism came as Mr. de Villepin announced a package of measures to redirect resources to France's most deprived urban areas. They include accelerating training and job seeking programmes for unemployed youths from these areas, increasing aid for urban renewal and measures to boost education resources and scholarships.

Aziz Senni, a Moroccan-born businessman and author of the book 'the social escalator is broken, I took the stairs,' was disappointed by the response. "What is needed today is political courage, which I have not seen from either the President or the Prime Minister."

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/4677d0c4-508a-11da-bbd7-0000779e2340.html

The following link is for an author who lived in France for 10 years and gives a nice historical background on the unfortunate events that occurred within the past 50 years of the 20th Century that culminated to the riots:

The title of the article is:
Why is France Burning? the Rebellion of a Lost Generation...

http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2005/11/why_is_france_b.html