President Emmanuel Macron postponed a long-planned state visit to Germany as France braces for a potential fifth night of riots and looting triggered by the police killing of a teenager.
The cancellation of his meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is another sign that the violence is eroding Macron’s international agenda. On Friday, he left a summit of European Union leaders early to return home, only to face another night of violence that led to more than 1,300 arrests.
A private funeral was held Saturday at a mosque in a suburb near Paris for the 17-year-old boy of North African descent, Agence France-Presse reported. The unrest, which has drawn comparisons with America’s reaction to the murder of George Floyd in 2020, is growing into a moment of reckoning for France.
