The Death of Nahel in Nanterre: Police Violence, Institutional Racism, and the Anger in French Suburbs

Death of Nahel, killed by police fire in NanterredossierThe international press highlights Emmanuel Macron’s “delicate balancing act” and the anger that is expressed, once again, in the French suburbs after the death of the young Nahel in Nanterre.

An all-too-familiar death. For the Guardian, Nahel’s death is a reminder of others. The British newspaper recalls the death of Adama Traoré, in 2016, and that of Jean-Paul Benjamin, killed at the wheel of a van in 2022. “As in other countries, the Black Lives Matter movement has galvanized activism . People spoke louder and louder. Yet they have not been heard. note the Guardian. “The anger is accumulating”, warns the newspaper which denounces “aggressive police techniques” and “institutional racism”. Same story in Germany, In the Süddeutsche Zeitung, which calls for a change of course on the issue of police violence.

This desire to see the police reform risks remaining a wishful thinking, warns Le Temps, which headlines The French suburbs are burning with rage. “Unlike other French anger, that of the suburbs is struggling to organize itself, to turn into lasting political pressure and everything suggests that it will therefore continue not to be heard in the long term. To be sporadic. Until the next tragedy, écrit Paul Ackermann.

According to the Courrier international, the international press underline also how much the President of the Republic is in a difficult situation. The New York Times you can Emmanuel Macron “forced into a delicate balancing act”. According to the American daily, the President oscillates between a desire to “suppress the protests before they spread further and reverse his efforts to restore a sense of calm […] after the turbulence triggered by the pension reform”, and the need to take strong measures to effectively put an end to the hours. But “if the measures he takes to stop the demonstrations are too drastic, they can only fuel anger against police violence”, warns the New York Times.

In the United Kingdom, the presence of Emmanuel Macron at the Elton John concert on Wednesday evening, “while rioters wreaked havoc in the capital” did not escape the DailyMail. “As Macron socialized backstage, police were embroiled in fierce clashes with protesters,” the tabloid writes.

In Italy, the daily La Repubblica parle of “Guerilla in France” and draws a parallel with the film Athéna, presented at the Venice Film Festival, in which Romain Gavras had imagined how the police killing a suburban boy could plunge France into civil war. According to the newspaper, a state of emergency cannot be ruled out.

2023-06-30 07:13:00


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