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‘A nation of prosecutors’: The French are suing the state to drive social change
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28/02/2021 - 13:27
A demonstrator holds a placard reading "No justice no peace" at a rally against police racism and brutality in Paris on June 13, 2020. © Benoit Tessier, Reuters
11 min
President Emmanuel Macron recently lamented that the French have become “a nation of 66 million prosecutors”. He may have a point: Whether battling climate change or racial profiling by police, activists and ordinary citizens are pursuing groundbreaking legal action to force his government into action. 
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When France’s government hosted a roundtable on relations between the police and the public earlier this month, part of consultations aimed at bolstering confidence in law enforcement, the panel invited to the interior ministry in Paris raised more than a few eyebrows.

‘A lack of public trust’: France mulls reform of country’s police watchdog
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07/12/2020 - 15:23
Police officers drag a man on the ground during a protest against government plans to give the police wider powers in Paris on November 28, 2020. © Ameer Al-Halbi, AFP
7 min
Outrage over high-profile cases of police brutality has revived talk of a culture of impunity in French law enforcement and heightened scrutiny of the country’s police watchdog, the IGPN, which critics say is hamstrung by a lack of independence.
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In June of this year, at the height of protests against violence and racism in the police, France’s outgoing human rights ombudsman raised the alarm over a "crisis of public confidence in the security forces" in a wide-ranging report that made for grim reading.

Policing without consent: Why French police are ill-equipped to ‘reconquer’ Paris suburbs
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13/10/2020 - 21:36
French police hold paper shooting targets following an attack on the police station in Champigny-sur-Marne, east of Paris, on October 12, 2020. © Lucien Libert, REUTERS
11 min
Brazen attacks on French police have highlighted the divide between law enforcement and youths in France’s most deprived suburbs. Analysts say bridging the chasm requires changing the entrenched culture of a police force that is answerable to the state, not the people.
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With its fresh coat of paint, refurbished offices and supplementary cells, the revamped police station in Champigny-sur-Marne, east of Paris, was hailed as a “showcase” of the government’s suburban policing strategy when it reopened earlier this year following a €4.4 million facelift. 

When the coronavirus started spreading earlier this year, a second pandemic developed simultaneously: that of corona-racism. Right-wing extremism researcher Judith Rahner spoke with EURACTIV Germany about the connectivity of racist narratives to centuries-old prejudices and why this racism could run rampant longer than the virus itself.
Judith Rahner heads the Gender and Right-Wing Extremism Unit at the Amadeu Antonio Foundation.
Why have we seen an increase in racism since the outbreak of the pandemic?
We are currently experiencing an exceptional social situation in which many people feel a loss of control. Such a situation is predestined to make people vulnerable to conspiracy ideological and racist narratives.