Since Tuesday, France has been shaken by the more than regrettable death of Nahel. This young man from Nanterre (17) was killed by a representative of the police for refusing to comply in the city of Hauts-de-Seine. A murder that outraged many French people and made many players of the France team react who did not hesitate to take offense at this unjust death. This is how Paul Pogba, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Mike Maignan, Jules Koundé and Kylian Mbappé, among others, published a message to honor the memory of the young man killed.
After the tributes, numerous riots broke out across France. Like the events that followed the tragic deaths of Zyed and Bouna in 2005, France is plagued by numerous clashes between rioters and police. A chaos which adds oil to the fire in an already tense social climate and which has led to many dramatic situations in recent hours in several French cities.
“The time of violence must end”
Faced with this shambles, the players of the French team spoke again this Friday by publishing a forum via their personal social networks. The text was written collectively and with the help of their advisers and denounces the tensions that have animated French evenings and nights in recent days: “Like all French people, we were marked and shocked by the brutal death of young Nahel. Since this tragic event, we have been witnessing the expression of popular anger whose substance we understand, but whose form we cannot endorse. Coming for many of us from working-class neighborhoods, these feelings of pain and sadness, we also share it, sympathize with the players of the France team. But to this suffering is added that of assisting powerless to a real process of self-destruction.»
Visibly very affected by this affair, the Blues invited the rioters to act in a more peaceful manner as quickly as possible: “Violence solves nothing, even less when it inevitably and tirelessly turns against those who express it, their families, loved ones and neighbours. It is your property that you are destroying, your neighborhoods, your cities, your places of fulfillment and proximity. There are other peaceful and constructive ways to express yourself. The time of violence must end to make way for that of mourning, dialogue and reconstruction.It now remains to be seen whether this text will have the desired effect.
