Kacper Kita wrote that the riots were characterized by three aspects. The first was, as he assessed, the admission by government representatives that they had failed to maintain public order. He quoted statements from Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez about losing control and Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin about failure. He pointed out that Nuñez had previously been, among other things, the police prefect in Paris and head of intelligence, while Darmanin had led the Ministry of the Interior for four years, overseeing the police, services, and immigration. In his opinion, Darmanin, known for sharp statements and media provocations, achieved little beyond drawing attention to himself. Kita added that former Prime Ministers Gabriel Attal and Édouard Philippe, whom he identified as candidates from Macron's camp to take over after him, also criticized the president for insufficient actions. Attal spoke about considering the use of the military, and Philippe accused Macron of commenting on the situation instead of taking action and ensuring leadership for the country. The second aspect was Macron blaming the extreme left and its militias collaborating with criminal organizations for the violence, along with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and the government. Kita assessed that after years of warning about the far right, as well as previous statements by Macron and Darmanin about the risk of civil war in the event of a victory by Marine Le Pen, it would be harder to portray national groups as a greater threat. He added that the issue of extreme left violence had ceased to be raised mainly by the right and by the nationalists themselves. According to him, there are also growing divisions between the center and the left, which could weaken Jean-Luc Mélenchon's voters' support for the center candidate in the second round. He recalled that in 2022, 46 percent of voters did not cast a valid ballot. The third factor was, according to Kita, the proximity of the presidential elections, which were to take place in six months. He compared this to the yellow vest protests in 2018, the riots following Nahel's death in 2023, and the riots from 2005, which occurred two years before the elections. He assessed that the issue would not disappear from voters' memories, and unrest could repeat itself. #Francja #polityka #zamieszki (translated)
