Emmanuel Macron announced this Friday, June 30 that “additional means” will be put in place to deal with the riots affecting France after the death of Nahel M. If he did not mention the establishment of the state of emergency, the development of the situation in the coming days will be decisive.
[Updated on June 30, 2023 at 3:23 p.m.] Elisabeth Borne had indicated this Friday, June 30 in the morning that “all the hypotheses” were on the table to respond to the riots which hit France, including the establishment of the state urgently, as Le Monde reminds us. In the end, the executive prefers, for the moment, not to resort to triggering this exceptional regime. At the end of an interministerial crisis meeting held at midday at the Ministry of the Interior, Emmanuel Macron did not mention the establishment of the state of emergency, after a third night of violence across the country in retaliation for the death of Nahel M.
The Head of State nevertheless announced that “additional means” will be deployed by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to respond to these riots, as indicated by 20 Minutes . In addition, Emmanuel Macron announced that Eric Dupond-Moretti, Minister of Justice, would publish circulars “targeting both adults and minors who may have been arrested and who will be brought to justice in the coming hours” , reports Le Monde. “The decision has been taken to cancel several festive events and several gatherings in the departments which are the most sensitive,” added the head of state, without giving further details, according to L’Express.
Condemning “unjustifiable violence which has no legitimacy”, the President of the Republic recalled that “a third of those arrested last night are young people, sometimes very young people”. Faced with this, Emmanuel Macron appealed “to the sense of responsibility of mothers and fathers of families”. “It is the parents’ responsibility to keep them at home (…) The Republic is not intended to replace them,” he added. The head of state also called for the “responsibility” of social media platforms, indicating that government services would ask that they remove “the most sensitive content”. A decision motivated by the fact that these platforms “play a considerable role in the movements of the last days”. If the establishment of the state of emergency is therefore not relevant this Friday, this does not mean that the government is definitively drawing a line under this option. There is no doubt that the evolution of the situation will be followed very closely at the top of the State in the coming days.
The state of emergency is an exceptional regime which can only be decreed by the Council of Ministers. As the official Public Life site reminds us, its establishment can be decided “either in the event of imminent danger resulting from serious breaches of public order, or in the event of a public calamity, which can designate any natural disaster of a magnitude exceptional”. “By vocation, the state of emergency makes it possible to strengthen the powers of the civil authorities and to restrict certain public or individual freedoms”, specifies the site.
This regime can be implemented throughout the territory or only in certain parts. After its establishment by decree in the Council of Ministers, it is planned for a period of 12 days. At the end of this period, it can be extended, but a law must be passed by Parliament for this. Still according to the Public Life site, the state of emergency provides in particular for “the ban on demonstrations, processions, parades and gatherings of people on the public highway”, “the ban on certain public meetings or the closure of public places and of places of worship”, “administrative searches”, “requisitions of private persons or means” or even “house arrest”.
