A resident walks past vehicles that were burnt overnight in the north-eastern Paris suburb of Sevran, yesterday. Dozens of vehicles were set ablaze and a total of 34 people were detained by police in the sixth night of rioting as street fighting spreads in the poor suburbs ringing the eastern side of the French capital. - REUTERS
PARIS (Reuters):
PRESIDENT JACQUES Chirac urged calm and dialogue yesterday after a sixth night of unrest in poor Paris suburbs that has triggered a damaging public row between ministers in France's conservative government.
Street fighting, sparked by the deaths of two teenagers electrocuted while apparently fleeing police during a local disturbance, spread to other parts of the poor suburbs ringing the capital to the north and the east, police said.
The unrest has highlighted increasingly bitter rivalry between Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and his deputy Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister, ahead of 2007 presidential elections.
"The law must be firmly applied and in a spirit of dialogue and respect," government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope quoted Chirac as telling the weekly Cabinet meeting.
ESCALATION OF DISRESPECT
"The absence of dialogue and escalation of disrespect would lead to a dangerous situation. There cannot be 'no-go' areas in the republic," Cope told reporters.
Villepin later summoned eight ministers to a special meeting on problem neighbourhoods in an effort to rein in squabbling ministers and deflect opposition charges of drift.
A heavy police presence kept a tense order in Clichy-sous-Bois as disturbances broke out in previously quiet areas. A total of 34 people were detained by police overnight, Sarkozy told Europe 1 radio.
Villepin met families of the two dead youths on Tuesday evening along with Sarkozy who is now under heavy fire for his tough line against the rioters.
CABINET SQUABBLING
Squabbling broke out within Villepin's government when Equal Opportunities Minister Azouz Begag openly criticised Sarkozy for calling the protesting youths "scum".
"I talk with real words," Sarkozy fired back in an interview in the daily Le Parisien. "When someone shoots at policemen, he's not just a 'youth', he's a lout, full stop."
He acknowledged on Europe 1 that Begag had not made his job any easier, while the equal opportunities minister complained in a regional newspaper that Sarkozy never consulted him.
Villepin delayed for several hours his planned departure for for a visit to Canada on Wednesday to deal with the issue and Sarkozy cancelled a planned visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The unrest in the northern and eastern suburbs, heavily populated by North African and black African minorities, was fuelled by youths' frustration at their failure to get jobs and recognition in French society.
Commentators said the competition to lead the right was distracting the government and dictating policy.
"With Begag, the prime minister thinks he has found a way to compete, at least in terms of tone, with Sarkozy's omnipresence on the subject, and to push him into going over the top and so to make a mistake," the left-leaning daily Liberation said.
"It's deliberately making things worse in order to further his own ends, which is worrying some senior Chirac allies."
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE
The regional Sud-Ouest newspaper agreed, and said that with presidential elections just 18 months away, Sarkozy seemed to be losing his touch: "What's at stake for him right now is 2007."
The opposition Socialists, who lost 2002 elections largely on law and order issues, denounced Sarkozy's style and said his tough policies were failing.
"I think when you are interior minister and number two in the government, you should master your own language," party leader Francois Hollande told reporters.
"Of course you have to be clear, but you don't have to stigmatise groups of people or attack those who are not involved and so create conflicts."
Sarkozy promised on Monday to put more police on the streets as part of his "zero tolerance" policy towards violence.
The Clichy unrest was the latest in a series of incidents in the Paris suburbs that have attracted the attention of Sarkozy and become the target of his vow to get tough on crime.
In June, an 11-year-old boy was killed by a stray bullet in the northern area of La Courneuve. The eastern suburb of Vitry-sur-Seine made headlines in 2002 when a 17-year-old girl was set alight by an 18-year-old boy.
