Abstract
A few months after the violent events that occurred in Paris suburbs, it was interesting to see how François Mitterrand, the former President of the French Republic (1981-1995) reacted to the Los Angeles civil unrest of May 1992. According to him, the riots were "above all a racial conflict and racial conflict is always wed to poor social programs?. He also went on to say that "George Bush is a generous man, who embodies an extremely conservative political ideology and the American society is conservative and economically capitalist. Here are the results." These criticisms of the American society and the social causes of the riots were among the sharpest at that time. However, it is hard to wonder what would have been François Mitterrand's reaction and comments after the violent Parisian nights of November 2005. These events did not occur in the "conservative and economically capitalist society" as described by the President but in France, a country proud of its Republican model of integration (the so-called "modèle d?intégration") and of socio-economic solidarity ("le Modèle Français"). International observers have not hesitated to point out the French failures in integrating minorities and providing them with decent life opportunities.
