PARIS (AP) \u2014 Widespread riots in France sparked by the police killing of\u00a0a teenager with North African roots\u00a0have revealed the depth of discontent roiling poor neighborhoods \u2014 and given a new platform to the increasingly emboldened far right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The far right\u2019s anti-immigration mantra is seeping through a once ironclad political divide between it and mainstream politics. More voices are now embracing a hard line against immigration and blaming immigrants not only for the car burnings and other violence that followed the June 27 killing of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, but for France\u2019s social problems as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe know the causes\u201d of France\u2019s unrest, Bruno Retailleau, head of the conservative group that dominates the French Senate, said last week on broadcaster France-Info. \u201cUnfortunately for the second, the third generation there is a sort of regression toward their origins, their ethnic origins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Retailleau\u2019s remarks, which drew accusations of racism, reflect the current line of his mainstream party, The Republicans, whose priorities to keep France \u201cfrom sinking durably into chaos\u201d include \u201cstopping mass immigration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs soon as we want to be firm,\u201d Retailleau said Tuesday on RTL radio, \u201cthey say, \u2018Oh la la. Scandal! The fascists are arriving! You\u2019re like the National Rally,\u2019\u201d the main far-right party. \u201cWe\u2019re sick of being politically correct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His response marked the latest fracture in a crumbling concept dubbed the \u201cRepublican Front,\u201d under which French parties, whatever their political color, used to stand together against the far right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By linking immigration to the riots, Retailleau violated France\u2019s near-sacred value of universality by which all citizens, whatever their origin,\u00a0are recognized only as French.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The far right appeared to capitalize on a sudden shift in the national mood to make further inroads: Shock and horror at Merzouk\u2019s death quickly morphed into shock and horror at the violent unrest,\u00a0which spread\u00a0from the outskirts of major urban areas to cities to small-town France. In just four days, an extreme-right\u00a0crowdfunding campaign\u00a0raised more than 1.5 million euros ($1.6 million) for the family of the police officer accused of killing Nahel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Far-right figures have long blamed immigration from majority Muslim North Africa, and some immigrants\u2019 failure to assimilate into French culture, for France\u2019s social problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe suffer an immigration that is totally anarchic,\u201d the National Rally\u2019s Marine Le Pen, the leading far-right figure in France, said last week on France 2 television. She claimed the riots were the work of \u201can ultra-majority of youth who are foreign or of foreign origin,\u201d and said there was \u201ca form of secession of these youths from French society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Le Pen\u2019s critics note that successive French governments have failed to integrate new arrivals, and that communities with immigrant backgrounds face disproportionately higher poverty, unemployment and deep-seated discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the far-right leader\u2019s voice resonates ever more loudly in France. Le Pen has spent years scrubbing up the image of her National Rally, and gained a powerful perch in parliament in legislative elections a year ago with 88 lawmakers. Le Pen now sits at the heart of institutional France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Le Pen\u2019s party has progressively anchored itself among French voters. She won more than 41% in the runoff presidential vote last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are practically no more categories of the population immune to a (far-right) vote,\u201d polling agency Ifop said after a recent survey showing a steady rise in voters who have cast a ballot for Le Pen\u2019s party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s centrist government took a tough line against the recent violence, but disputes Le Pen\u2019s characterization of those who rioted, with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin stressing that only 10% were foreigners. At a Senate hearing last week, he noted that some children with immigrant roots enter the police force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne criticized the GoFundMe campaign for the police officer\u2019s family as unhelpful in tense times. But its success appeared to reflect a clamor for security, another prize issue of the far right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jean Messiha, a former official in the National Rally and the upstart hard-right Reconquest party, called the enormous response to the fund that he started a \u201ctsunami\u201d in support of law enforcement officers \u201cwho in a certain way fight daily so that France remains France.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n