Unrest in France in 2005

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Departments affected by the unrest
The focal points in the Paris area

The violent unrest in France in October and November 2005 was a series of initially unorganized damage to property and arson, as well as violent clashes with the police in the so-called banlieue of the greater Paris area , which took place on Thursday, October 27, 2005, after Accidental death of two young people began. Initially, the riots were limited to the hometown of the young people, the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois . In the course of the following days, the unrest initially spread to departments in the Parisian region such as Seine-et-Marne orVal-d'Oise , later also to other French cities such as Lille , Rouen , Rennes , Dijon , Toulouse , Strasbourg and Marseille . In the evening of November 3rd alone, 500 cars and several houses in Aulnay-sous-Bois , Neuilly-sur-Marne , Le Blanc-Mesnil and in the Yvelines department were set on fire.

prehistory

Transformer station in Clichy-sous-Bois, where the events on October 27, 2005 originated

The trigger for the violence was rumors of the death of two young people from immigrant families living in France ( Ziad Benna , 17, and Bouna Traoré , 15) who escaped from the police and escaped the barriers to a transformer house in Paris on October 27, 2005 were fatally electrocuted there . Another youth, Muhttin Altun (17) of Turkish origin , was hospitalized with serious injuries. The prosecutor François Molins stated that the youths fled from police officers who, however, had persecuted another group who wanted to evade identity checks. This was also confirmed by the then French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy after he had initially accused the fatalities of stealing building materials, which quickly turned out to be false. After the official investigation was closed, Sarkozy opened a preliminary investigation into failure to provide assistance against unknown persons. Police officers had known about the presence of the young people on the premises, but would not have taken care of them, despite the threat to their lives. This suspicion of the relatives could meanwhile be confirmed by recordings of the police radio. Nevertheless, two police officers were acquitted in the last resort in 2015.

There had already been riots in the affected areas beforehand. In 2005, before the actual riots began, around 90 cars were set on fire every night in France, a total of 28,000 since the beginning of 2005. In addition, around 17,500 garbage containers were set on fire, 5,760 bus stops, telephone boxes and other municipal facilities were destroyed and 3,832 Attacks on the police or fire brigade counted. Only a series of arson attacks on Jewish institutions that put a strain on diplomatic relations between France and Israel caused a stir in the media.

Riots

Burning car in Strasbourg,
November 5, 2005
The burned-out wreck

After the death of the two young people, there were public riots and street battles for 20 nights in a row , in which those involved occasionally shot with live ammunition. On the first evening, several youth gangs set about two dozen cars on fire. Glass windows were broken and bus stops destroyed. The riots initially only began in the town of Clichy-sous-Bois near Paris, which is characterized by high unemployment and crime , until riots broke out in several cities in France. The police tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to stop the youth gangs' excesses. The unrest was particularly strong from October 30, 2005, when two tear gas grenades exploded in front of a fully occupied mosque that evening . Young people blame this incident on the French police, which, however, deny it.

More than 30 cars were set on fire in Dijon and around Marseille. Stones were thrown at police officers and there were attacks on public buildings such as town halls, schools and police stations.

In total, almost 8,500 cars were destroyed in the riots; around 2,500 people were arrested.

In the Seine-Saint-Denis department , northeast of Paris, 1,300 security forces were deployed to bring the situation under control. Local public transport had to be discontinued as numerous buses were constantly pelted with stones or completely destroyed by fires.

On November 4, the 61-year-old Frenchman Jean-Jacques Le Chenadec was beaten up by a violent criminal in the Paris suburb of Stains and died of severe head injuries.

On the night of November 7th, according to the police, 1,408 cars and numerous buildings from kindergartens to general stores went up in flames in what was the worst night of the riot to date.

The calls from the government, Muslim dignitaries and the parents of the two boys whose accidental death had triggered the unrest went unheard. More and more arson gangs moved into quiet neighborhoods. A few cars were even set on fire in central Paris. In the further course of the riots, there was talk of social reinforcing effects through politics and the media, so young people especially on the Internet had encouraged and tried to outdo each other. TV pictures are also said to have driven young people.

Dozens of cars and rubbish bins were set on fire in Nantes, Rennes, Rouen and Montargis. In Toulouse in the south of France, the fire brigade said it had to deploy around 50 times to put out fires set by youth groups. Dozens of teenagers were arrested. In Évreux, Normandy, a shopping center was badly damaged in clashes between armed youths and the police. Despite calls from the French government for law and order, youth rioting continued the night violence. 34 police officers were injured in clashes with youth gangs in Parisian suburbs and elsewhere in the country, the security forces said. By midnight, the police counted more than 500 infected cars and almost 100 arrests. Previously, President Jacques Chirac had declared the "restoration of security and order" to be an absolute priority. According to reports from the police, there was a first fatality on November 7th. In Le Raincy (Seine-Saint-Denis) the mayor imposed a curfew on November 7th .

Reactions from French politics and authorities

On November 5th, the French interior minister responsible for internal security, Nicolas Sarkozy, declared that “the state cannot accept the violence”. On the night of November 6th, he surprisingly visited a police station in the Essonne department in the south of Paris, where he was dealing with arrested minors. The socialist Senator Jean-Luc Mélenchon had previously warned of the need for a dialogue with the young people. The situation should not "become a conflict between desperate young people and angry police officers".

Sarkozy came under increasing pressure. Through his law-and-order slogans (catchphrase: "Tolérance zéro" ) he became a figure of hatred for young people, who were mostly of North African origin. Sarkozy claimed that these riots were perfectly planned. He was criticized, among other things, for describing the youngsters as “rabble” and “scum” (“racaille”) that you had to “ scrape away ”, that is, spray away with a high-pressure cleaner, arguing who was “civil servants, family fathers ” or " shoot young people of one's own skin color" can only be called that, and thus added even more fuel to the fire. In this context he also spoke of "gangrene", which should be "cut away". Young people from the suburbs called for Sarkozy to resign. Sections of the ruling UMP party , chaired by Sarkozy, also moved away from him. President Jacques Chirac, however, called for calm and dialogue. It was also criticized that Sarkozy abolished the local and citizen-based police de proximité , which was supposed to stand up for local arbitration. Chirac himself has been criticized for only commenting on the events after days of silence.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin met with protesters from affected neighborhoods for talks. He said if they were pupils, students, unemployed and owner of low-wage jobs . He said he wanted to initiate an action plan.

The vice-chairwoman of the right-wing extremist Front National , Marine Le Pen (daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen ), called on November 4, 2005 in a press release that a state of emergency be imposed and that the army be deployed in the affected districts.

The Parisian imam turned against the violence, calling it a shame. The brother of one of the young people who were electrocuted also called for moderation.

On November 5th there were the first counter-demonstrations and protests by the population against violence, so around 1000 citizens carried banners with the inscription “No to violence, yes to dialogue” through the streets of Aulnay-sous-Bois near Paris. In some places vigilante groups have been set up or called for their founding because the police are overwhelmed in many places. However, the latter viewed such efforts as very critical because the violence could possibly escalate.

The attorney general of Paris, Yves Bot , said the destruction was organized. Young people in other cities are invited to participate via the Internet . In his opinion, the unrest had no ethnic character but was directed solely against the state as an institution.

On November 8th, the French government decided to declare a state of emergency. The basis for this is an emergency law from 1955 that was applied in the Algerian war . First, the state of emergency was declared with Decree No. 2005-1386 and then the areas and cities in which the state of emergency applied was specified in Decree 2005-1387. In metropolitan France, this law had never been applied before. Thus, the police were now authorized to take preventive measures, such as house searches in the event of suspected gun possession. In addition, curfews should be specifically imposed on parts of French territory.

The press landscape in France reacted very differently to recent events. The focus was on the right-wing conservative tabloid France Soir , which spoke of "radical Islamists, organized gangs and guerrilla warfare ". This assessment was not supported by anything.

The green politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit called organized riots "nonsense" and a " conspiracy theory ", he accused Sarkozy of failure. He pointed to an atmosphere of suspicion even before the riots, since Sarkozy had special forces deployed in the areas in place of community officials. Cohn-Bendit called for a new police strategy, the “material integration” of young people and high investments in education. Current European school systems exclude immigrants.

Affected regions

Paris region, Île-de-France
Other regions (outside the Île-de-France)

Causes and Background

France has a long history of immigration. Most of the immigrants to France come from the former French colonies of Morocco , Tunisia , Algeria and sub-Saharan Africa . Many of these immigrants live in large new housing estates that have emerged from the 1970s on the outskirts of large cities, the banlieues . The integration of immigrants, a majority of whom have French citizenship, has only been very incomplete. Experts see the outbreaks of violence as an expression of the long pent-up anger of many young people, especially those of African origin, about the prevailing relative poverty , racism , the lack of prospects, mass unemployment and the associated resignation , boredom and gang crime as well as the lack of opportunities for integration (ghettoization), especially the migrants in the satellite towns concern it (see. Youth Bulge ).

Sociologists have long warned of an escalation, as the suburbs have been politically neglected for about 20 years. The young people themselves had previously tried repeatedly to draw attention to their situation in a peaceful manner. B. through the “marche des Beurs”, but the hoped-for reactions did not materialize. Savings and social cuts , especially at the local level, exacerbated the situation. The existing frustration, along with ethnic and religious tensions, was compounded by the feeling of being politically ignored and merely being calm down and harassed by the police. One participant in the riot said: “People unite to say that we have had enough. We live in ghettos. Everyone lives in fear. ” In the media, the sociologist Michel Wieviorka interpreted the events as a revolt against order, and the young people attacked symbols of the state . The integration failed, the residents felt excluded from society and without prospects.

The rebellious youths in the French suburbs it was almost exclusively male adolescents . Male and female youths in migrant families lived - for example, the magazine Emma in a gender-oriented analysis - in the field of tension between a traditionally shaped culture, which is often strongly patriarchal , and the western culture of the country in which they live. They experience discrimination and social disadvantage because their neighborhoods are stigmatized , they come from abroad and often live in poor conditions. Because they lack strategies for conflict resolution , male adolescents are more likely to resort to violence .

Media reception and processing

As early as 1995, the French film drama " Hass " described the desolate life in the banlieues of France. It is about the lives of three young protagonists whose world is dominated by hip-hop, violence, drugs and confrontations with the police.

After the events:

  • Anger in the cities. (OT: L'embrasement. ) TV film, France, 2006, 78 min., Book: Marc Herpoux, Philippe Triboit, director: Philippe Triboit, production: Cinétévé, arte France, German first broadcast: January 12, 2007, summary by arte
  • The video “Stress” by the French band Justice , which is controversially discussed because of the depictions of violence , is about a group of young people of Algerian and African descent who rampage through Paris and are filmed by a camera team.
  • The Algerian-French photographer Mohamed Bourouissa dedicates his photo series “Périphérique” (2005–2009) to the rites and customs on the streets of the banlieue. In large-format works, he stages and stylizes violent body language in artificial images.
  • Historian Dominique Manotti's crime novel “Relevant Known” deals with the unrest and the involvement of the police in corruption.

Reverberation in Germany

On the situation in Germany, Jörg Schönbohm and Wolfgang Bosbach (both CDU ) said that many young people of non-German origin would also feel excluded and could in future express their anger and hatred in a similar way, especially in the social ghettos . Günther Beckstein ( CSU ) warned against “ parallel societies ”.

Isolated arson attacks in Bremen-Huchting , Berlin-Moabit and Brussels were known to be imitation acts . In Berlin, in addition to cars and clothes containers, an empty school was set on fire. There were also isolated cases in Cologne. It was unclear whether these were due to the French riots or were otherwise motivated.

Web links and sources

Commons : Paris Suburban Riots  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Spiegel-Online: "It goes on now, non-stop"
  2. ↑ Tagesschau.de: Judgment on suburban riots in Paris: acquittal after the death of young people ( Memento from May 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Tagesspiegel of November 7, 2005, not available as an online article
  4. ↑ “But the development is escalating. Since January there have been 70,000 cases of vandalism, arson, gang violence. No less than 28,000 cars have been infected. And it is mostly the cars of the poor that are blazing. ”In: Aufruhr in Eurabia . In: Der Spiegel . No. 45 , 2005 ( online - Nov. 7, 2005 ).
  5. ↑ The Decree 2005-1386 at fr.wikisource.org
  6. ↑ The Decree 2005-1387 at fr.wikisource.org
  7. ↑ "Neither Whores nor Slaves - Rebellion in France's suburbs" , hr , 10 November 2005
  8. ↑ Emma ; Edition January / February 2006, pp. 6 - 7 and 22 - 31
  9. ↑ http://www.mohamedbourouissa.com/peripherique/