France wants to “restore authority at all levels," says Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. Attal presented a shock plan against uncivil behavior and youth violence in Viry-Châtillon.

"If you break, you repair; if you get dirty, clean; If you challenge authority, we will teach you to respect it,' Attal said. In the speech, echoes were heard of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who rose to the head of state with a tough-on-crime policy and those he disparagingly described as "rabble.'" The prime minister does not use those words, and his message attempts to restore authority in the family, the school, and the streets, writes Frida Ghitis in a column for The New York Review of Books. She says Attal and Macron have reinforced the law and order message after last summer's riots in the multicultural and poor suburbs and recent attacks on teenagers and episodes of violence in schools.