French President Emmanuel Macron expressed "extreme caution" regarding the return to calm after France witnessed seven consecutive nights of riots causing major damage.
However, he believed that the "peak" of these incidents had passed, as he received mayors from the most affected cities.
According to one of the participants, President Macron stated, "Is the return to calm permanent? I am cautious about that, but the peak we witnessed in the past days has passed."
He added, "It is the permanent republican order that we all want and that we will adhere to. It is the absolute priority." At the same time, he thanked municipal officials, police officers, gendarmes, municipal police officers, and firefighters.
After a week of riots following the shooting death of a 17-year-old boy named Nael M., a police officer, France experienced a limited number of arrests last night, totaling 72, including 24 in Paris and its nearby suburbs, compared to hundreds of people involved in the peak of violence.
New acts of sabotage occurred, and police and gendarmerie stations were attacked. Tram and bus services in the suburbs of Paris will stop operating from 10:00 PM (8:00 PM GMT) on Tuesday.
This measure, aimed at ensuring the safety of passengers, was delayed by one hour compared to previous days.
According to figures reported by the French Ministry of the Interior to Agence France-Presse on Tuesday, 3,486 people were arrested, 12,202 cars were burned, 1,105 buildings were burned or vandalized, and 209 national police, gendarmerie, or municipal police stations were targeted between the night of June 27 and June 28.
In the southern city of Marseille, which witnessed some of the worst riots, public prosecutors have launched an investigation into the death of a 27-year-old man on Saturday night.
The young man is believed to have suffered a heart attack after a "violent shock" caused by being shot in the chest with a rubber bullet of the type used by the French police.
The public prosecutor's office stated that it is not clear whether the young man was a protester or a passerby.
Approximately sixty schools have been significantly damaged.
On Tuesday, Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire announced that "more than a thousand stores were looted, attacked, or burned," while also declaring assistance for "each case" of the most affected and promised support from insurance companies.
As a significant portion of French youth begins their long summer vacation, the government maintains immense security capabilities for the past week.
Around 45,000 police officers and gendarmes were deployed on Monday night for the third consecutive night in an attempt to quell the violence, which reached its peak on Sunday with an attack on the home of the mayor of La Verrière, Vincent Jeanbrun, in a southern suburb of Paris, forcing his family to flee.
Through consultation with elected municipal officials, Macron aims to "begin a precise and long-term work to deeply understand the causes that led to these events," according to his office.
Similar to what happened in 2005, the instigators of the riots express "hatred" towards the police and a strong sense of being marginalized, especially among young people of foreign origin and the Muslim faith, according to French sociologist Olivier Galland, a researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France.
His colleague, Donny Meertens, a professor at the New Sorbonne University specializing in Latin American affairs, stated that the instigators of the riots target state symbols because they are widely present in poor neighborhoods, unlike other areas in the world that have been abandoned by the state.
He added, "Everyone repeats it, there is a major problem in the relationship between the police and this type of population, especially when it has been ongoing for 40 years."
Riots erupted on the evening of June 27th after a police officer was shot dead on the same day, and a 17-year-old boy named Nael M. was killed during a traffic check in Nanterre near Paris. The incident was captured on video.
On Sunday, the boy's grandmother called for calm and an end to acts of sabotage. According to the Ministry of National Education, approximately 60 schools suffered major damages, including around ten institutions that were partially or completely destroyed.
Judicially, there was a swift response to the looting and vandalism, with the trial of 374 individuals taking place since Friday, according to the Ministry of Justice.
President Macron and his government have repeatedly raised the idea, often discussed by the right-wing, of financially punishing parents.
During a visit to a police barracks in the capital on Monday evening, Macron said, "When the first offense occurs, we must be able to penalize families financially and easily, a type of minimal punishment as soon as the first mistake is committed."
AFP