Seven in ten believe crime is 'out of control' in France, a year after warnings it was heading for 'Mexicanization'

By IMOGEN GARFINKEL - SENIOR FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER Published: 15:20, 1 June 2026 | Updated: 15:21, 1 June 2026 Over seven in ten people in France believe that crime is 'out of control', a year after fears emerged that the country was sliding towards a 'Mexicanized narco-state'. According to a poll this week from CSA for Le Journal du Dimanche, 72 per cent of the French population believes that crime has dramatically escalated beyond previous levels. This belief is strongest among supporters of the centre-right Républicains, at 92 per cent, followed by 83 per cent of National Rally, and 62 per cent of supporters of President Emmanuel Macron’s neo-liberal bloc.  The conviction was also held by a majority of left-wing voters, at 55 per cent overall. This included 58 per cent of supporters of the far-left La France Insoumise party, founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and 51 per cent of Socialist voters.  Only Green Party supporters were below a majority, at just 45 per cent, in not believing that France is in danger of becoming like Mexico, where the state has lost authority to rogue criminal networks. Women were more likely than men to view the situation as out of control, at 76 per cent compared to 69 per cent. Age had a significant impact on opinion, with 76 per cent of people over 50 believing there has been a loss of control, compared to 71 per cent of respondents aged 25 to 44, and just 55 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds. A car set alight close to the Eiffel Tower in dramatic scenes in Paris on Saturday evening  Paris burns: A man waves a Paris Saint-Germain flag as a barricade is set aflame in the 16th arrondissement of Paris The poll was published shortly before chaos erupted on Saturday night amid a merging of celebration and violence, as thousands of PSG fans clashed with police following the team's Champions League final victory over Arsenal.  More than seven hundred people were arrested according to Minister of the Interior Laurent Nuñez, with Macron condemning 'unacceptable scenes of violence in Paris'. Streams of flares and fireworks were let off in the vicinity of the Eiffel Tower, which was illuminated in the colours of the winning French team. But footage circulating on social media also showed electric bikes burning on roads, revellers smashing the glass of at least one shopfront, and fireworks exploding in busy streets in the capital city, causing scores of bystanders to scream and flee for their safety. There was similar violence when PSG won the same trophy in 2025, with celebrations turning deadly. 'Last year, for the same event, the figure was 592. So, we are up by 32 per cent,' Nuñez said, according to BFM. 'And to date, these 780 arrests have resulted in 457 people being taken into custody.' Hard-right leader Marine Le Pen wrote on X: 'Only in France does a football club's victory spark riots.' 'Only in France does everyone feel compelled to lock themselves in their homes on the evening of a victory to avoid being confronted with violence,' she said. Her protégé, Jordan Bardella, said on Sunday morning: 'In Paris, in Île-de-France as everywhere on the territory, violence and vandalism are multiplying.  'Groups are targeting public property, businesses, and law enforcement. The modus operandi is always the same: to stone, destroy, and pillage.  'Total support for our police, gendarmes, and firefighters who ensure the country's protection in the face of an atmospheric violence that has become unbearable.  'The authority of the state must be upheld everywhere.' Former Interior Minister and current presidential candidate Bruno Retailleau said: 'The violence following PSG's victory is no longer an isolated incident; it has become a ritual that repeats and worsens.  'Two concrete measures: facial recognition to identify every rioter, and the reinstatement of joint financial liability - before 1981, the anti-riot law allowed it.  'You smash, you pay. But let's be clear-eyed: this crisis of authority will not be resolved without addressing the migratory disorders that have for years fueled the erosion of respect for the law and the weakening of the republican pact.  'France should not have to endure this violence with every trophy. Order is a decision.' Police officers run to disperse PSG supporters on the Champs-Elysees Avenue, during the UEFA Champions League final football match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Arsenal FC played in Budapest, in Paris on May 30 A fan stands ready with a flare after PSG took home the coveted Champions League cup A PSG supporter runs through the streets of the French capital holding a flare The weekend's violence comes as alarming Narco wars are being fought across France. Teenagers and children have been shot, stabbed and burned alive, gang kingpins have broken out of custody, and cocaine is being washed up on beaches.  At the end of 2024, then-Interior Minister Retailleau declared war on the operating gangs, after a 15-year-old boy was caught in the crossfires and killed in a massive brawl and gunfight in Poitiers, on November 1.  The violence erupted in front of a restaurant and turned into a shootout involving up to 600 people. 'Narco scum today have no limits, this isn't happening in South America but in Rennes, in Poitiers, in parts of western France that once enjoyed a reputation for peace and quiet,' Retailleau said.  He spoke during a visit to Rennes, Brittany, where a five-year-old boy was left with critical injuries after being hit in the head by a stray bullet during a drug-related collision at the end of the preceding month. But not even 24 hours after Retailleau left the city, a 19-year-old died after being fatally stabbed in the Maurepas neighbourhood, which police said is rife with drug crime. Across the country, at least 16 hotspots of violence have been uncovered in recent years, from Nimes - where a 10-year-old boy was killed in suspected drugs violence in 2023 - to Paris, as shocking statistics of death and destruction emerge on an almost daily basis. Once mainly associated with Marseille, gun battles between drug gangs have become more frequent in Grenoble, and have even begun spreading out into cities including Poitiers, Clermont-Ferrand, Valence, and Villeurbanne. Last month, a 15-year-old boy was killed and a boy of 13 was seriously injured in a suspected drugs-related shooting in the western city of Nantes.  The attackers were wearing balaclavas and used automatic weapons, according to Interior Minister Nuñez, who said he was determined to 'win' the 'war' against drug-related crime. 'The motives behind this shooting, as the public prosecutor has stated, are very likely linked to drug trafficking,' he said. 'That said... that does not mean that the individuals who were targeted, and especially the person who died, were themselves involved in trafficking. I want to be absolutely clear on that.' The 15-year-old victim's aunt, named as Paola, from Nantes' working-class neighbourhood of Port-Boyer, strongly rejected the idea that he was involved with drugs. She insisted to reporters that her nephew 'was not a criminal'.  'You shouldn't mix everything up,' said Paola. 'He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He wasn't involved in any of that; he had simply come to visit a friend.' Nantes Mayor, Johanna Rolland, condemned what she calls the 'drug trafficking that is plaguing the country', and emphasised the distress and 'intense emotion' the community was already experiencing another fatal shooting at the end of April. During that incident, a man was killed and another seriously injured in the same area in a shooting also linked to drug trafficking.  In May 2024, AK47-wielding killers shot dead two prison officers in an ambush to free drugs kingpin Mohamed Amra- dubbed 'The Fly'.  The 'highly dangerous' inmate was freed by four gunmen who stormed a cop convoy and slaughtered the two officers. At the time, he was Europe's most wanted criminal after allegedly ordering a mafia style execution in Marseille in 2022. A police source said he had ties to the city's notorious Blacks gang.  Authorities scored a win when they recaptured the fugitive in Romania in February 2025, but two months later at least six prisons around the country were targeted with gun and arson attacks. France's Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said the acts of terrorism were directed at security officials charged with guarding some of the nation's most hardened crime kingpins.  No comments have so far been submitted. 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