The French Minister of Solidarity, Personal Independence and Disability, Aurore Bergé, announced today a plan about the challenges of families, which includes the creation of a commission and the option of imposing community work on parents who neglect their responsibility.
In an interview published today in the weekly La Tribune Dimanche, Bergé revealed that he is working with the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, and the head of the Justice portfolio, Éric Dupond-Moretti, on different measures, such as parents having to face costs when their children are guilty of “degradations.”
Likewise, the Government plans to fine parents when they do not appear at court hearings that concern their children. In addition, a scientific commission – made up of experts such as demographers, judges or psychiatrists – will be created to study the challenges of parenthood in France and will increase by 30% of the so-called CAF (Caisses d’allocations familiales), in charge of distributing social aid to families. This battery of measures is related to the wave of unrest that France experienced between the end of June and the beginning of last July, unleashed after the death of a minor of North African descent at the hands of the police at a roadblock in Nanterre, on the outskirts of Paris.
In those incidents, in which more than 2,500 buildings were burned or damaged, hundreds of businesses were looted and vandalized and more than 12,000 cars were burned, security forces detained 4,000 people.
A third of those arrested were minors and the majority came from single-parent homes, which is why the French president, Emmanuel Macron He then pointed out the responsibility of parents. “It is clear that authority needs to be restored and it is not old-fashioned or reactionary to say so. We see that parents can feel overwhelmed and disoriented in the face of new risks, such as a sedentary lifestyle and the increasing importance of screens.
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