PARIS — Emmanuel Macron is struggling to connect with the French when discussing recent instances of violence committed by minors.
The French president’s problem came to the fore Tuesday after a 14-year-old student stabbed to death a 31-year-old school employee in the northeastern city of Nogent, the second incident of its kind in the past three months.
The timing of the tragedy proved politically problematic for Macron, as just days earlier he had argued in an interview that media coverage of violent crime was tantamount to fear-mongering — and was abetting the far right’s strategy of amplifying violent incidents to promote tough-on-crime and anti-immigration policies.
Macron’s comments were meant to underline the importance of redirecting public focus toward solving existential societal challenges like climate change ahead of the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice. But following the school stabbing those statements rang hollow to many French parents who worry if their children are safe in school.
“Public opinion already places security among its top concerns. Events like the Nogent knife attack serve as proof that these concerns are valid,” said Erwan Lestrohan, research director at polling institute Odoxa.
A survey from pollster Elabe, fielded in the immediate aftermath of Tuesday’s stabbing, found that 87 percent of respondents believed such incidents “reflect a real increase in violence among minors” rather than being “marginal phenomena.”
The poll found that just 21 percent of respondents trust Macron to take “effective action against juvenile violence and address its underlying causes,” compared to 42 percent for his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.
Particularly heinous acts involving minors appear to be on the rise in France, at least according to data cited by François-Noël Buffet, a conservative junior minister in the interior ministry. Buffet told lawmakers on Wednesday that while youth delinquency rates had remained stable from 2016 to 2024, the most violent acts, such as homicides, had increased.
“Violence among minors has changed appearance, it is more radical and more widespread,” Buffet said.
Recent incidents include a 14-year-old being stabbed to death in January in Paris after reportedly refusing to surrender his phone to two other minors. In April a student in Nantes fatally stabbed a 15-year-old classmate and injured others. Tuesday’s attack occurred as police were checking students’ bags — a security measure introduced in response to previous incidents.
Macron denounced the Nogent stabbing as an act of “unspeakable violence,” but also lamented what he called “a society of information where we move on from one crime report to the next.”
He proceeded to blame broken families and the impact of social media on children, reiterating his desire for a ban on social media for children younger than 15 and vowing to push ahead with France’s own laws if Brussels doesn’t act quickly enough.
Macron’s messaging problem isn’t new. While at ease in addressing global issues such as climate change, the French leader sometimes struggles to find his voice when it comes to domestic security policy — an area where his authority is already limited given France’s paralyzed legislature and Macron’s increasingly tenuous relationship with his prime minster.
But by focusing on issues like rising sea levels at a time when violent crime is so front-of-mind, Macron risks sounding detached — even if the former poses a greater existential risk.
“When it comes to crime and safety, perception trumps reality,” Lestrohan said. “A nationwide outcry triggers a call for an authoritative response.”
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