For Emmanuel Macron, the young people who took part in the riots grew up in single-parent families or in the ASE

“Order, Order, Order”. Here, in three words (indeed three times the same), is the program that Emmanuel Macron wants to apply to young people.

Three weeks after the urban riots that erupted following the death of Nahel M., killed by police shooting, the Head of State granted an interview on Monday 24 July to the 13 TF1 and France 2 news from Nouméa, New Caledonia.

Objective: to take stock of the “One Hundred Days of Peace” which he had asked last April, in full mobilization of the pension reform, and to give the government the course, a few days before the reshuffle.

A return to order and no discussion

In addition to the announcements on the reforms to come – Education, immigration law, ecological transition… -, Emmanuel Macron took stock of the management of the episodes of urban violence following the death of Nahel on 27 June. Welcoming the “4,000 arrests” carried out by the police e “relentless judicial response”the president has initiated an analysis of the data relating to the profile of “500 to 600 young people brought to justice”.

“They are very young, on average around 16 years old. We are talking about young people who, for the vast majority, were not known to the courts. We’re talking about young people who, overwhelmingly, have a weakened family environment, either because they are in single-parent families – they are raised by only one parent – ​​or because they are involved in childcare “, declared Emmanuel Macron, who then asked for “a return of authority at every level, and above all in the family”.

“It’s all the work I want to be able to offer at the end of the summer, that of parental authority,” he added. It is not national education, much less the police, that is the problem. You have to deal with it at the root. We must therefore empower some families, support some others who are in difficulty and we must reinvest massively in our young people to give them a framework. »

A stigma against single mothers

This reference to ” fragile family environment » which would constitute the “single parent families” he didn’t fail to react. On Twitter, Jean-Luc Mélenchon was the first to accuse the head of state of stigmatizing these single-parent families and “cover overflows” Police “without upholding justice”.

Several Internet users followed suit, noting, in passing, that it was a dangerous shortcut that condoned police violence while bringing shame on families who are often kept at arm’s length by women. Because, as INSEE underlined in its latest study on the subject dating back to 2020, one in four families is single-parent (24.7%); mothers are largely at the head of this type of family (85%). These families are also very often in precarious situations.

Question, like Emmanuel Macron, a “return to parental authority” and a more incisive intervention on those families already affected by systemic difficulties will certainly not solve the problem. And, contrary to what he says, police violence and lack of resources for National Education are part of the problem. But this, the President of the Republic is obviously not ready to hear.

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