De Villepin said the unrest was a challenge for the whole of France.
PARIS, France (CNN) -- France has a very serious social problem that requires dramatic solutions, the French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has told CNN.
In an exclusive interview with CNN's Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour, de Villepin said the government was taking urgent action in the areas of justice, housing, education and employment.
The moves follow a wave of arson attacks and riots across the country that left 130 police injured, and more than 9,000 cars burned.
He said the government was launching a "very intensive" program to help deprived neighborhoods, including tripling the scholarships to boarding schools given to children from these areas.
De Villepin said the country's employment agency would see all the young people from deprived areas in the next month "in order to either propose either a job, either a training program or an internship."
"We are willing to take into account that their very specific difficulties and individually to answer these difficulties," he said.
He said the government wanted to create more tax-free zones in deprived areas, but also wanted people in these areas to accept jobs outside these neighborhoods.
"We need a social mix in order to have a real equilibrium now in our society," he said.
De Villepin said the government intended to do away with high-rise housing estates, replacing them quickly with smaller scale buildings.
'Feeling of discrimination'
He said social unrest in the country was fueled by a "feeling of discrimination among young adults.
"Very often you have people coming from the second generation of immigration, they don't know their country of origin," he said.
"They don't have the same link with France as their parents who chose to come and work here. So, as Jacques Chirac, the President of the Republic said, there was some kind of a lack of identity."
He said members of minority groups in France "did not want ... to be recognized as Muslims, or as blacks, or as people coming from North Africa. They want to be recognized as French and they want to have equal opportunity during their lives."
De Villepin said overcoming these problems was a challenge for the whole of French society.
And he warned: "Whatever happened in France can happen as well in other countries, in Europe or else where. It is a part of a new phenomenon of globalization.
"So we need to be successful and I think France has to show that its society has a vitality, has a capacity, has a willingness to make and to deal with the challenge."
Story Tools |
CNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more. | CNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more. |
