French Justice Minister promises 'extremely firm' punishment for rioters

The French Justice Minister, Gérald Darmanin, has spoken out on the violence, promising an extremely firm punishment for those involved. Why is justice extremely firm in the face of this looting, in the face of aggression towards police and gendarmes and public buildings? Because those who do this betray France and its image. They destroy the life, the economic lifeline of a business owner, the image of a city, a country. furthermore if we do not impose firm criminal penalties then shopkeepers and residents will take matters into their own hands our job is to deliver justice in the name of the French people and not let people believe that they have to take the law into their own hands to avoid being robbed attacked or looted let's take a closer look at those comments from the justice minister with Angela Diffley who joins me on set Angela, what's behind Dominique's comments? Well it really goes to the heart of the matter if you like if you take a look at social media if you talk to people and as I mentioned yesterday some of the umbrella groups representing shopkeepers shop owners small businesses people are talking about arming themselves baseball bats various other weapons they're not giving much detail you know once any country enters into that territory where citizens are taking up arms against other citizens it is extremely dangerous it has been made very clear that the people concerned do not feel sufficiently protected. And that is why the government needs to really set an example, they feel, in terms of making sure that the idea goes out that tough penalties are needed. That said, you know, the government cannot decide what penalties a judge decides to impose. This is a democracy. It doesn't work like that. Also, much in the air again today is still this idea of should there or not be a state of emergency. The authorities will be keeping an eye on events this weekend when there will be further demonstrations. There is still talk about should the army intervene. A lot of people on social media are saying, you know, get the soldiers out there, get the army out there. This is a huge problem. In the face of all of that, so Gérald Darmanin is the justice minister. the prime minister and interior minister are holding meetings on Thursday to talk about the police and whether the police are using excessive violence or whether the police are underpowered because they're being criticized by different groups of people for each of those things. That said, a number of key political parties, number one, the National Front or the Rassemblement National led by Marine Le Pen, have said they will not be attending that meeting that this is all pointless. In fact, the centrist former prime minister, Gabriel Attal, who is also a candidate in the election, says he doesn't really see what this is all about. All of that ahead of, on Saturday, the Gilets Jaunes, a separate, but sometimes overlapping group to what we saw this weekend. They are much more about people living outside towns and cities. They need petrol to get to work, often low-paying jobs. They want that sorted out, and they will be out this Saturday and also the students again picking up their protests. So whether or not those pass off peacefully will be an important next step. Let's get back to those measures. What about the cost of all of it? Who would be paying? Well, again, if you take a look at what people are saying, there is fury from the shopkeepers. As I said, there is also fury from taxpayers saying, are we going to put the bill for all of this? and the government has in progress a bill where welfare payments might be cut off to identified vandals who destroy property it's quite difficult to make all of that happen and it's very likely that should that get through the final hurdle in parliament it will not be very easy to implement and the courts will be frequently asked to intervene so there's a lot of skepticism around that uh so who will be paying well the government has already uh found money to pay for uh government financed furlough for all those people who now have no workplace to go to as a result of the activities this weekend uh that is coming from the government purse but you know france has sky high borrowing costs already uh bond yields are going up and up and there is very little money the government has already had to find it for farmers fishermen poulers those are people who contribute to the economy. And that means that school children who will in the future contribute to the economy, but at the moment are having a free service, are a harder group to find money for. This is a huge problem. It certainly is. All right. Well, thanks so much for that, Angela. That's our international affairs editor, Angela Duffley.