Macron's uphill battle to rebuild from deep divisions

Emmanuel Macron is facing the biggest domestic challenge of his fraught second term in office, after the police shooting of a teenager of Algerian origin at a traffic stop last month led to night after night of urban unrest.

-  Angelique Chrisafis

The president last week announced crisis funding to help the reconstruction of burned-out buildings and public services. But questions remain over deep divisions in French society.

Teenagers as young as 13 clashed with police as hundreds of public buildings were set alight, more than 5,000 cars torched, 3,400 people arrested, scores of schools damaged, 150 post offices attacked, more than 11,000 fires started and 2,000 shops looted, with an estimated €1bn ($1.1bn) damage to businesses. More than 800 police officers were injured and some of the poorest estates in the country woke up to find public libraries and community centres reduced to ashes.

The president faces several difficulties. First is a national image problem. Amid deep mistrust of politics, crises have piled up one after the other - from the gilets jaunes anti-government protests of 2018 and 2019 to the millions of protesters who took to the streets this year against Macron raising the pension age to 64. Macron's diplomatic agenda has been affected: he had to return early from a Brussels summit and postpone a state visit to Germany, only months after he was unable to welcome Britain's King Charles amid pensions strikes and protests.