Saturday, November 05, 2005

France's downwards spiral: Intifada

After yet another night of mayhem in the suburbs of Paris, we are starting to see coherence. The muslim protesters want: the head of the Interior Ministry Nicolas Sarkozy. This is the guy that called the rioters "scum" and they didn't like it. There no word on his pending (or non-pending) resignation in this piece from the BBC, but as has been relayed in these pages before, the French Government is done for. The protesters will first demand one minister, then another, then they'll want a coalition. To that end, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has started meeting with these "youths". From the BBC:

Mr de Villepin is trying to launch an action plan for the affected Paris suburbs, which are poor, largely immigrant communities with high levels of unemployment.

He held a conference with youths from urban areas hit by the unrest on Friday.

But all is not happiness. Indeed, some local officials can already see beyond the horizon and that offering "plans to violent protester is bad idea:

But [M. de Villepin] came under fire from a group of around 30 mayors and other elected officials from the affected areas, who said this was no time for a plan.

"All we need is one death and things will get out of control," said Jean-Christophe Lagarde, mayor of Drancy.

Last night's tally: 900 cars torched, two nurseries and a school. Nice people.

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