Macron calls crisis talks after another night of violence across France, with more than 600 arrested
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron will chair a government crisis meeting later Friday following another night of violence after a teenager was shot dead by police.
Macron was in Brussels Thursday to attend the European Council summit and will join his fellow EU leaders for early Friday talks but will leave late morning to attend the ministerial meeting at 1 p.m., Playbook Paris reported.
The president was “kept fully informed of events” while in Brussels, one of his advisers said.
For three nights in a row, there has been unrest across France after a 17-year-old was killed by police in a Paris suburb. For local authorities, law enforcement, and young people in the impoverished banlieues, the shadow of the 2005 riots that rocked French suburbs for weeks looms large.
French authorities on Thursday mobilized 40,000 security forces throughout the country, including 5,000 in Paris. The interior ministry announced that 667 people had been arrested and 249 members of law enforcement injured on Thursday night as protesters burned cars and trash cans, and looted stores.
On Friday morning, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne organized a meeting with ministers before Macron’s return from Brussels. “The acts committed are unbearable and inexcusable,” she tweeted. “I reiterate my support and confidence in the police, gendarmes and firefighters who courageously carry out their mission.”
Clea Caulcutt contributed reporting from Brussels.
