Why are there riots in Paris, France?

10 year 10 On October 27th, two boys were electrocuted while trying to escape from the police in Zubya town, clichy, a northern suburb of Paris. Hundreds of teenagers in this city took to the streets to protest, burning cars and trash cans, smashing shops and government agencies, and clashed with the police. The riot spread.

Riot schedule

65438+1On October 27th, two African-American Muslim teenagers ran into a substation to avoid being chased by the police and were electrocuted. Hundreds of teenagers in the town took to the streets to protest, clashed with the police and then caused riots.

10 year128 October, riots continued, and many cars in Clichy subway street were burned. During the two-day riot, 23 policemen were injured and 13 people were arrested.

10 year1On October 29th, hundreds of residents of Clichy subway town held a silent procession between the city hall and the incident substation.

10 10 On October 30th, the police threw tear gas at a mosque in Clichy subway town, and the riot further escalated.

10 10/0/3 1 day, Minister of the Interior Sarkozy visited Argenteille in the suburbs of Paris and was demonstrated by protesters.

165438+ 10/day, riots spread from sub-wa town in Clichy to Oneisubwa town, causing more than 30 injuries in this area.

165438+102, French president Jacques Chirac made his first speech on the riots, calling on the people to remain calm.

165438+1October 3, the riots entered the seventh day and the conflict intensified. Mobs opened fire on police and firefighters, burning about 40 cars, two buses, several garbage bins and some bus stops.

The riots in Paris, France exposed complex political disputes.

The riots around Paris, France showed new ominous signs on the 3 rd. During the riot, some people shot at the police and firefighters. The French are worried that the declaration of "40-night riots" may become a reality.

The riots exposed the disadvantages accumulated by French society in immigration and assimilation policies, and also brought about complex political struggles.

The riot has escalated.

On the evening of the 3 rd, gunshots sounded during the riots. In the northern Parisian province of Seine-saint-denis, four gunshots were heard from three riot scenes, and the gunmen targeted the police and firefighters. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Signs of escalating riots are also manifested in the expansion of violence and scale. Riot participants are no longer satisfied with setting fire to cars, burning shops and throwing stones. On the morning of the 3rd, two commuter trains connecting Paris and Charles de Gaulle Airport were attacked by stones, and one line was forced to stop running. The attacker threatened to stop the train and broke the train window, and one of the female passengers was scratched by the glass. In the worst-hit town of Oneisubwa, young people surrounded a police station and set fire to a Renault dealer, a supermarket and the local gymnasium. During the week-long riots, nine people were injured and 365,438+05 cars were burned in Seine-saint-denis province alone.

social cost

The fuse of this riot seems irrelevant. 10 10/27, two teenagers were electrocuted while trying to avoid being chased by the police in Subua town, clichy, the northeast suburb of Paris. Angry local youths began to set fire to vent their dissatisfaction, and the riots quickly spread to more than ten towns around Paris within a week. Some people blame the expansion of the riots on the "violent remarks" of French Interior Minister Sarkozy. At the beginning of the riots, the Minister of the Interior claimed to "clean up" the "rabble" in the suburbs with water cannons.

But more people attribute the riots to two reasons. One is the strong gap between French big cities and surrounding suburbs in wealth, public security, employment and so on; The second is that the assimilation policy of race, nationality and culture that France has been seeking has deepened the opposition. The area around Paris where the riots occurred was mainly inhabited by African and Arab immigrants. Most of them live in houses built in the sixties and seventies. In order to alleviate the housing pressure in Paris, the French government has built a large number of residential buildings in the suburbs and surrounding provinces.

High population density, numerous immigrants and high unemployment rate have gradually made these areas synonymous with poverty, crime, drug abuse, the forgotten and the injured. Especially in public residential areas provided by the government,1the unemployment rate of young people aged 5 to 25 is as high as 40%.

Manuel Valls, mayor of Ebri, a suburb of Paris, told DPA: "We are paying the price for social, regional and racial segregation for more than 30 years."

Political disputes

European media believe that as a strong candidate for the 2007 French presidential election, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy began to pay the price for his tough remarks. The British "Daily Telegraph" said that the statement of "cleaning up" the "rabble" in the suburbs is simply a far-right argument. "He ruined his chance."

Sarkozy's biggest rival, Prime Minister de Villepin, was also criticized for his policy of failing to eliminate the marginalization of the suburbs.

The Czech People's Daily said that both Sarkozy and de Villepin wanted to use this riot to attack their opponents and gain political capital for their presidential campaign. "French politicians think this is a good opportunity to get extra points."

Some European right-wingers regard the riots in Paris as "a warning to Europe", because many European countries face the same problems of immigration, cultural integration and economic differences.

Feng (Xinhua News Agency)

The riots in Paris reflect the lack of European immigration policy.

Although the French government has taken resolute measures to quell the riots, it is believed that the social order will be restored soon after the riots, but if we look into the causes of the riots with a rational eye, it can be said that it is the result of the intensification of French immigration policy and the principle of "Republican assimilation".

Zhao Junjie

10 The riots in the suburbs of Paris, France, which began on June 27th, have continued to this day, attracting great attention from European countries and reflecting the lack of immigration policies in western European countries in recent years.

Although the French government has taken resolute measures to quell the riots, it is believed that the social order will be restored soon after the riots, but if we look into the causes of the riots with a rational eye, it can be said that it is the result of the intensification of French immigration policy and the principle of "Republican assimilation".

As we all know, France has entered an aging society, and the birth rate of a new generation of native French is low. In order to inject new vitality into society and maintain sustained economic growth, the French government has absorbed a large number of immigrants from North African countries and Turkey in recent years. Most of them believe in Islam, which is obviously different from the French nation in religious beliefs, values and daily customs. Due to the lack of employment opportunities and social security, as well as the lack of good education, the newly born French immigrants have gradually formed marginalized "socially disadvantaged groups" in cities. Take this riot as an example. The living environment of African-American immigrants in the northern suburbs of Paris is harsh, the unemployment rate is more than twice that of Paris, the gap between the rich and the poor is large and the crime rate is high. The original new generation of immigrants were deeply dissatisfied with the French government's immigration policy. Now that their compatriots are killed, it will naturally lead to riots in social groups to vent their dissatisfaction.

Therefore, this social unrest is not accidental, which fully shows that there are many drawbacks in the immigration and social policies of the French government.

According to the statistics of the French Ministry of the Interior, there are as many as 75 1 sensitive suburbs in France, such as Suvoi and Clichy, which hide social unrest. These areas have high population density, many immigrants, few employment opportunities, widespread poverty and crime, and serious violence and racial discrimination. Although the French government has given some policy support to such areas, it often regards immigrants from such areas as a threat to the French social welfare system. In particular, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has always advocated "selective immigration" and "cleaning up" suburban immigrant groups. He even made some tough remarks when dealing with the riot, claiming that he would have "zero tolerance" for the rioters, which naturally aroused public anger.

There are many problems in the immigration policy pursued by the French government, and the gap between the rich and the poor in the suburbs is too large, which led to this large-scale riot. After the riots, the French government should seriously sit down and think about why it doesn't recognize the principle of "Republic assimilation". Why does the tough immigration policy cause social rebound? A spokesman for the French Socialist Party claimed that "the implementation of the security policy in the rich areas has lost the general public." This makes sense. Although France has always emphasized freedom, equality, human rights and fraternity, it is often difficult to achieve equality between French natives and new immigrants in real life. Racial discrimination and police violence do exist, and the United States is no exception.

Drawing a lesson from this, the French authorities should take this as a warning and attach great importance to the inequality and disparity between the rich and the poor in French society, instead of tightening the immigration policy and creating more social instability. Similarly, other European countries also have immigration social problems, and they should also take the Paris riots as a warning.

□ Zhao Junjie (Researcher, Institute of European Studies, China Academy of Social Sciences)