French PM criticised over crackdown on teenage violence

Gabriel Attal accused of drawing on far-right ideas in speech saying the state needed real surge of authority'

The French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, is facing criticism for his proposed crackdown on teenage violence in and around schools, after he said some teenagers in France were addicted to violence", just as the government seeks to reclaim ground on security issues from the far right before European elections.

In his speech in Viry-Chatillon, a town south of Paris where a 15-year-old boy was beaten and killed this month by a group of youths, Attal said the state needed a real surge of authority".