French President Emmanuel Macron told ministers at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the country is seeing a trend towards "décivilisation", government sources said. Macron's remarks followed the deaths of a nurse and three policemen in the past week as well as a fatal shooting in Marseille.
"We must be uncompromising on the fundamentals," Macron told ministers at a cabinet meeting. "There is no such thing as 'legitimate' violence, whether it be verbal or [physically] targeting people."
"We must work tirelessly to counteract this process of décivilisation," he said in comments first reported by the daily "Le Parisien" and confirmed to AFP by a person present.
While violent crime remains relatively rare in France, a particularly violent week prompted Macron to cancel a trip to the south of France to take part in a memorial for three policemen killed in a car crash Sunday when a man under the influence drove the wrong way.
During a tribute to the police officers on Thursday in Roubaix, Macron called for respecting those who "risk their lives" for others, denouncing "irresponsible behavior that kills".
"At the sight of your three coffins, one can only be stunned in the face of the injustice and the absurdity," he said. The president was accompanied by First Lady Brigitte Macron and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
Three men were killed in a shooting in Marseille over the weekend while a nurse died after a knife attack on Monday by a man suffering from psychiatric problems in the eastern city of Reims.
But the revelation that Macron used the word "décivilisation" immediately drew criticism that he was adopting rhetoric beloved by the far right and those who subscribe to the xenophobic "great replacement" theory.
French media was awash in headlines deconstructing his usage of the term on Thursday.
Attacks on officials
A series of assaults on elected officials, including a mayor in western France who stepped down after an arson attack on his house, was among the issues addressed in Macron's remarks.
Mayor Yannick Morez of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins resigned after waking to find his house aflame on March 22. Those opposing the opening of an accommodation centre for asylum seekers in the town are believed to have set the fire deliberately.
Mayor Julien Luya of Firminy in the Loire region was attacked by a group of locals dealing drugs in January. When they lit a fire to keep warm, Luya told them it was against the law and was violently beaten with iron bars.
>> Read more: As French mayors are targeted in violent attacks, many feel abandoned
Other officials, including members of parliament, have been threatened or had their offices vandalised amid fierce protests against Macron's deeply unpopular pension reform.
The head of the conservative Les Républicains party, Éric Ciotti, had his office vandalised by anti-reform protesters in March.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
