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French police carried out a series of high-profile raids in poor suburbs close to the capital on Friday, arresting dozens of people suspected of shooting at police and setting fires during three days of unrested days. The raids were supported by 1,100 police officers who surrounded buildings, forced open doors and searched homes in towns including Villiers-le-Bel and Sarcelles. The sweep came less than a month before municipal elections that could deal a further blow to the standing of President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose approval ratings have plunged since his election last year. Sarkozy vowed to reform France and improve law and order in its restive suburbs during his election campaign. But his popularity has plunged in recent months. Opinion polls blame his autocratic style, the rising cost of living and mounting criticism of his courtship of Carla Bruni and their marriage this month. Government opponents immediately branded the unusually large police operation on Monday as an opportunistic bid to bolster support ahead of the elections.
”When cameras are taken along on massive police operations during an election period, I think it’s a way of influencing opinion, with the goal of spreading fear,” said Ségolène Royal, a prominent member of the Socialist Party who lost the May 2007 presidential elections to Sarkozy.
Police took 35 people into custody and were seeking several more on suspicion of arson and attempted murder of police officers during three nights of violence in Villiers-le-Bel last November, said a spokesman for the French police. The rioting last November was triggered when two youths on a motorbike died in a collision with a police car. More than 130 police officers were injured, 75 of them wounded by shotgun fire or pellet guns. The use of firearms during the unrest was seen as a dangerous escalation in hard-to-police areas where unemployment is high and residents, many from immigrant backgrounds, live in rundown public housing. The riots in November echoed a more serious outbreak unrest across France in 2005, when youths torched thousands of cars during weeks of clashes with police. This month Sarkozy unveiled a broad plan aimed at tackling the problems besetting the suburbs, vowing to send in 4,000 more police officers and offering a package of aid for neighborhoods that have struggled with poverty, violence and social deprivation. Sarkozy and members of his government have blamed the violence on criminal elements.
“I think it’s normal today that the government is showing that there are not any lawless areas,” André Santini, a government secretary of state, told France 2 television on Monday after the launch of the raids.
“We’ve got to be firm with those who don’t respect any rules,” he said.
(A French Police Car After the Raid.)
(The French Preisdent Speaking after the Raid.)
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