PARIS, FRANCE — French President Emmanuel Macron issued a stern warning to the violent rioters this week currently burning major metropolitan centers across the Republic, threatening to impose the harshest penalty available under French law by forcing offenders to remain in France, potentially for the rest of their lives.
In a late-night address broadcast live from a fortified command room beneath the Élysée Palace, Macron warned that the era of official leniency was officially over and that the government was ready to unleash its most brutal, inescapable penalty yet.
“Let me be perfectly clear that anyone caught participating in these acts of violence will face serious consequences,” Macron announced during the televised address. “They may be required to continue living here, raising their families here, and experiencing the full consequences of everything happening to this country. I cannot imagine a more severe punishment.”
Human rights groups and international watchdogs immediately condemned Macron’s proposed measure, calling the threat of lifetime confinement within France’s economic and political climate “cruel, unusual, and potentially a violation of international law.”
The president said repeat offenders could face mandatory lifetime residency in downtown Marseille, while particularly troublesome individuals could be sentenced to a 30-year lease in a Paris suburb with free cash, housing, and healthcare.
