Le Pen Calls Rioters Scum as Violence Roils Paris Suburbs

(Bloomberg) -- Marine Le Pen, the anti-immigration candidate in France’s election, unleashed a social-media campaign attacking minority communities after successive nights of violence in the ghettos around Paris.

Some satellite towns around the capital have seen violent protests almost every night since Feb. 5 when four policemen were charged with attacking a young black man in Aulnay-sous-Bois, close to where riots erupted 12 years ago. Police have made multiple arrests, including last night, Agence France-Presse reported.

“Security forces have been the target of gangs of scum that nothing seems to be able to stop anymore, and certainly not the courts in a overall context of decadence,” Le Pen said in a statement.

With fears about immigration and public security providing the backdrop to the French election campaign, Le Pen started an online petition to support the police as her aides and supporters used social media to condemn the protesters and heap blame for problem on the Socialist government.

“Look at this scum!” Le Pen’s closest adviser Florian Philippot wrote on Twitter Sunday, repeating the attack in television appearances the following day. “If they’re foreigners, immediate deportation -- or prison for life.”

His comments have been quoted and republished by pro-Le Pen accounts including WithMarine, MLP Presidente 2017 and by supporters using hashtags like #JeSoutiensLaPolice -- meaning ‘I back the police.’

“This is their stock in trade,” said Richard Ferrand, a Socialist lawmaker who’s secretary general of independent front-runner Emmanuel Macron’s campaign. “They use crimes, drama and violence to spread fear and draw the French towards them.”

‘An Excuse’

Three officers were charged with battery and a fourth with rape over the attack on a 22-year-old man identified as Theo after a spot check on Feb. 2.

“Support for Theo is an excuse to attack the cops,” Marion Marechal Le Pen, a National Front lawmaker and the candidate’s niece, said. “It’s a pretext to throw opprobrium on an entire profession.”

While polls indicate Le Pen is likely to win the most votes in the first round of France’s presidential election on April 23, they also project that she will lose the run-off two weeks later by at least 12 percentage points.

Peaceful marches by several hundred residents in the past days in Aulnay-sous-Bois and Bobigny north-east of Paris were followed by some youngsters vandalizing restaurants and setting garbage cans and cars on fire. Violence erupted yesterday in other suburban towns including Argenteuil and Drancy.

“Once more she’s throwing oil on the fire,” Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon said in a statement Monday. “Once more she’s creating disorder, she’s encouraging violence with her hate speech.” Hamon is running fourth in the polls.

Grainy Footage

While Le Pen praised the police for its work to protect France in a statement Monday, Republican candidate Francois Fillon blamed the Socialist government for allowing the demonstrations in a Feb 12 statement.

The victim, whose first name is Theo, said in a video recorded by his lawyer and shown widely on French media that he had cooperated with the police before they started insulting and attacking him. Grainy scenes filmed by witnesses show the police surrounding and hitting the man as he falls to the ground.

Aulnay-sous-Bois is just 6 kilometers away from Clichy-sous-Bois, where the death of two boys fleeing a police spot check in October 2005 led to several weeks of rioting in troubled neighborhoods across France and a state of emergency being imposed in parts of the country.

--With assistance from Mark Deen

To contact the reporter on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Ben Sills, Flavia Krause-Jackson