The world watches incredulously as France tears itself

Macron loses control of France. Thousands of arrests. Schools, community centers, town halls, sports facilities, post offices, post offices, set fire. Looting range from Lidl supermarkets to Apple stores. In addition to the impressed police, gendarmes and special units were used to patrol on the streets at night. Growing anger among the shop owners who demand an outcome lock, "or we take the matter in our own hands".

and after five day unrest in all of France, the opinion grows that the current situation is largely the result of almost a quarter of a century of clever governments, neglecting basic law and order.

The viral video of the 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, who apparently listens to the policeman who have stopped him on the street, only to be shocked up close, the majority of France shock-not only the inhabitants of the ethnic diverse Banlieu of the country like the one in which he lived and died.

The 6,000-person protest march, which reacted the following day and demanded "justice", was also considered completely legitimate-until he escalated catastrophically in the too well-known manner. Restrests, fire allegations (state racism, that "they" want to kill "us") and then literally arson: arson, senseless vandalism and destruction, from waiting halls to shop lines, kindergartens, social housing. And theft of private and public property everywhere; Licked; Tramened milk from six packs to watches, jewelry, nike shoes and strollers.

When the unrest broke out, I was at the Tocqueville Conversations, a conference with the Ukrainian-Russian conflict. There Eastern Europeans - Poland, Ukrainian, emigrated Russians, but also British, French, Americans and Spaniards - with increasing disbelief, such as in a country where peace prevailed, such willful destruction was committed. "They destroy the social contract that is essential for democracy," Sławomir Dębski, the well -known Polish historian and geostrate. We had talked about the costs of Europe that would result from the reconstruction of post -war sucraine: the French among us were concerned about the costs of reconstruction of parts of Marseille, Lens, Bordeaux and Paris.

Nihilist destruction is tolerated in France for about a quarter of a century. It started around the turn of the millennium under the presidency of Chirac. The end of demonstrations and marches-an old French tradition that is codified and regulated (they have to register their traditional May March or their political demo in the prefecture, including travel routes, time, etc.)-soon disturbed by looters as "Casseurs" because they also fell in addition to the things they could not steal. The police were less and less concerned with them, especially to miss allegations of systemic brutality - until they struck back exhausted and triggered a new cycle catching up and oppression.

If that sounds like poor police work, then because it is so: the flics also the poorly paid and poorly trained people are deeply demoralized by such inconsistent stop-and-go practices. Until 2005 the cycle had been completely out of control. The death of two young men, Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré, who tried to hide from the police in a high -voltage transformer, and died by an electric shock, triggered unrest for weeks. At that time, both narratives were firmly rooted and could be used when the USA -inspired activists decided to convert complex attitudes into ethnicity and citizenship into simplified American.

President Emmanuel Macron is aware of the Black Lives Matter/George Floyd scenarios. For this reason, he hesitated: After waiting for three full days before he had sent the gendarmerie, he still hesitated at the time of writing this article to impose an outcome or to get the army to patrol on the streets.

In the meantime, the situation hardly shows any signs of relaxation: The President had to cancel his state visit in Germany tomorrow. The control slips quickly.