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SCHOOLS

‘Macron’s mean’: French PM gets rough ride at holiday school

France's Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Monday endured a sometimes abrupt reception at a boarding school taking on children during the Easter holidays as part of an experiment to stem youth violence.

Published: 22 April 2024 18:07 CEST
'Macron's mean': French PM gets rough ride at holiday school
France's Prime Minister Gabriel Attal meets pupils during a visit to the Parc Imperial High School in Nice, south-eastern France on April 22, 2024. (Photo by Valery HACHE / POOL / AFP)

The uncomfortable episode at the school also comes with Attal and his government under pressure to make their mark as the anti-immigration far-right National Rally party leaps ahead in polls for the June 9 European Parliament elections.

Such holiday schools are part of a plan aimed at keeping teens off the streets during France’s long school holidays after the country was shaken by a series of attacks on schoolchildren by their peers.

“There’s a violence problem among young people. Tackling the issue is one of my government’s biggest priorities,” Attal told a group of teenagers in uniform tracksuits as he visited the school in the southern city of Nice.

Attal, appointed by Macron in January as France’s youngest ever prime minister, was seen as a telegenic asset in the battle against the far-right.

But his own popularity ratings have been tanking in the recent weeks with the latest poll by Ipsos finding 34 percent approving his work in April, down four percent on March.

When he asked the group who was happy to be there for the Easter holidays, which started on April 20 in the Nice region, most replied in the negative.

“My mother forced me,” said one male student.

“My parents didn’t convince me to go, they forced me, that’s all. I have nothing to say. It was that or home,” said Rayan, 14.

“In any case, you are going to learn lots of things, you are going to do lots of activities,” insisted Attal, adding he was “sure that in the end, you will be happy to be there.”

Another boy seemed not to know who Attal was.

“Are you the mayor or the prime minister?” asked Saif, 13. “Me, I am the prime minister and the mayor, he is there,” said Attal frostily, gesturing to Nice mayor Christian Estrosi.

A young boy asked the former education minister what his job was and if he was rich, then what he thought of the president.

“Macron’s mean,” the boy said looking at his feet, in comments caught on camera and broadcast on the BFMTV television channel.

“What’s that? Why do you say that?” Attal replied as burly Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti moved towards the boy.

“Anyway here you’re going to learn lots,” Attal added.

He also reprimanded another boy for referring to the president simply as “Macron”. “We say Monsieur Macron as with all adults,” he said.

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POLITICS

French territory New Caledonia counts the cost of overnight riots

People in New Caledonia's main city Noumea assessed the damage on Tuesday after a night of rioting in the French Pacific territory that saw vehicles and shops torched, and shots fired at security forces.

Published: 14 May 2024 08:08 CEST
French territory New Caledonia counts the cost of overnight riots

Riots erupted on Monday over a constitutional reform that is being debated in the national assembly in Paris, and which aims to expand the electorate in the territory’s provincial elections.

Groups of demonstrators took over several roundabouts and confronted police, who responded with non-lethal rounds, while the territory’s high commissioner said shots had been fired at security forces during the riots.

On Tuesday, the streets of Noumea bore the scars of clashes between the police and rioters with traffic blocked by burnt-out cars and smoking piles of tyres.

“The police station nearby was on fire and a car was too, in front of my house, there was non-stop shouting and explosions, I felt like I was in a war,” said Sylvie, whose family has lived in New Caledonia for several generations.

“We are alone. Who is going to protect us?” she told AFP, asking to be identified only by her first name.

A total of 36 people were arrested and 30 police officers injured, according to authorities, who also announced a night-time curfew on Tuesday and a ban on public gatherings.

No deaths have been reported.

“I can’t talk,” said Joelle Vincent, who owns a supermarket business. “I am disappointed and disgusted.”

The fire brigade recorded nearly 1,500 calls and counted around 200 fires in the overnight unrest.

At least two car dealerships and a bottling factory in the capital Noumea were set on fire in arson attacks, an AFP journalist saw.

‘Side by side’

While the situation appeared more calm in parts of Noumea on Tuesday, there were still clashes in the suburbs, where a supermarket was looted after being rammed during the night.

Many other businesses also bore the marks of attempted break-ins and few shops were open. Long queues were forming in front of the few that are still open.

Hundreds of cars were set on fire, as were more than 30 businesses, shops and factories, according to a group of employers’ representatives.

The group issued an appeal for calm and said nearly 1,000 jobs on the island had been put at risk by the unrest.

The island’s public transport network has also been cut off, with the territory’s flag carrier Aircalin announcing that it was cancelling all its flights for Tuesday.

“I feel sad,” Jean-Franck Jallet, who owns a butcher shop that firefighters managed to rescue from the flames. “I thought it was possible for us (islanders) to live side by side, but it hasn’t worked. There are too many lies.”

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