Protesters burn down buses
Macron goes back to France. President Emmanuel Macron left an EU conference in Brussels early on Friday to return to France, where three nights of rioting had erupted over a police shooting of a teenager.
Macron canceled a media conference scheduled for the summit’s second and final day in order to return to Paris.
As he walked away from the press, he said nothing.
Protesters enraged by the police shooting of a teenager torched a dozen buses in a depot in the French capital’s north overnight on Friday, disrupting public transportation.
The buses were destroyed after Molotov cocktails were thrown overnight into the facility in Aubervilliers, north of Paris, causing “significant damage” but no injuries, according to the RATP transport authority.
“We must strongly condemn this violence.” Nothing can excuse it,” Transport Minister Clement Beaune told reporters as he inspected the scene, adding that he felt “indignation and anger, because when public services are targeted, it can only pile wrong on top of injustice.”
“We are taking all necessary steps to ensure the operation of public transportation, as we rely on trams, buses, and trains.” This morning, traffic is restarting as best it can, but security comes first.”
Buses and trams had already been suspended since 9:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) Thursday when a tram was attacked in protest the night before, with service only resuming in the early morning.
The metro has mainly continued to operate normally.
“People are attacking the things that make everyday life possible… in areas where they are most needed,” said RATP CEO Jean Castex, a former prime minister under President Emmanuel Macron.
However, 23 bus lines out of 350 in the city were not operating on Friday morning, while two tram lines were entirely closed and others gave partial service or experienced substantial delays, according to RATP.
The RATP said services would resume “bit by bit, depending on the state of the routes and the local security situation.”
“Traffic on bus and tram networks will be severely disrupted today,” it tweeted.
“We’re putting safety first and won’t take any unnecessary risks,” minister Beaune said, adding that bus terminal security would be increased.
Following the death of Nahel, 17, by a police officer during a traffic stop in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday, France has seen three nights of widespread protests and unrest.
His death, with a bystander’s video undermining police claims he was shot as he drove directly at officers, has revived longstanding grievances about policing and racial profiling in France’s low-income and multiethnic suburbs.
AFP