France has celebrated its national holiday with soaring warplanes and a grand Bastille Day parade in Paris — and with more than 100,000 police deployed around the country to prevent a new outbreak of unrest in underprivileged neighbourhoods.
The celebrations marking the start of the French Revolution on July 14 1789 came after the nation’s most serious rioting for nearly 20 years, following the fatal police shooting of a teenager with North African roots that laid bare anger over entrenched inequality and racial discrimination.
Fighter jets and military helicopters on Friday flew above the site where 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk was killed last month in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, on their way towards the Arc de Triomphe and the VIP guests watching the parade.
The streets were unusually quiet as local residents gathered at Nanterre’s Nelson Mandela Square to watch the flyby.
India was the guest of honour at this year’s Bastille Day parade, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi watching alongside French President Emmanuel Macron.
About 240 Indian troops led the march down the Champs-Elysees before thousands of French forces, and French-made Indian warplanes joined the aerial display.
Russia’s war in Ukraine — central to last year’s Bastille Day celebrations – echoed in this year’s events as well. Vehicles on display included the Caesar anti-missile batteries that France is providing to Ukraine, and Kyiv officials were invited to join Mr Macron in the VIP seats.
On the eve of France’s national day, he gave a posthumous Legion of Honour award to a French journalist killed in Ukraine earlier this year, Arman Soldin of news agency Agence France-Presse.
The Bastille Day parade included 6,500 people marching, 94 planes and helicopters, 219 ground vehicles, 200 horses and 86 dogs.
Festivities are held in towns and cities around France to commemorate the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 that marked the start of the French Revolution, and to celebrate France’s ideals of “liberty, equality and fraternity”.
But the motto rings hollow for many people living in neglected housing estates who trace their roots to former French colonies and struggle with lack of opportunity and day-to-day racism. These issues came to the fore after Nahel’s killing in Nanterre during a traffic stop.
The fatal shooting at point-blank range, captured on video, sparked several days of clashes with police, burning of buildings and vehicles and looting of stores in cities and towns around France.
Mr Macron has not directly addressed the issues raised by the killing, focusing instead on supporting towns that saw damage in rioting.
A presidential aide said the celebrations come “at a time when it is necessary to reaffirm national cohesion”.
Because unrest tends to spike every year around Bastille Day and because France remains on edge, the government deployed an exceptional 130,000 police on Thursday and Friday.
Fireworks were banned in several towns, including Nanterre, after they had been used to target police in the recent rioting.
Overnight Thursday to Friday, the Interior Ministry reported 97 people arrested in urban violence and 218 cars set alight around the country. That was slightly lower than last year.
