[...]
"There's a violence problem among young people. Tackling the issue is one of my government's biggest priorities," [France PM Gabriel] Attal told a group of teenagers in uniform tracksuits as he visited the school.

When he asked the group whether they were happy to be there for the Easter holidays, which started on April 20 in the Nice region, most replied in the negative.

"My parents didn't convince me to go, they forced me," said one male student aged 14. Another boy seemed not to know who Attal was, asking the 35-year-old premier: "Are you the mayor or the prime minister?"

archive Who is Gabriel Attal?, "real, tangible dangers"

"Me, I am the prime minister and the mayor, he is there," answered Attal, France's youngest ever prime minister, gesturing to Nice mayor Christian Estrosi. A third boy asked Attal what his job was and if he was rich, then what he thought of the French president.

"Macron's mean," the boy said looking at his feet, in comments caught on camera and broadcast on the BFMTV television channel.

archive anomie

"The idea here is not to punish, but to prevent," he added. "The idea is to help you."
[...]
Activities will include workshops on the values of the French Republic, learning the national anthem, and a trip to a nearby internment camp used by the Nazi-allied Vichy Regime during World War II. Attal has called for greater use of boarding schools to prevent youths from falling into delinquency.

"We have around 50,000 empty boarding places in France today, which is crazy when you think about it, even though we know that there are many parents who are overwhelmed and who could see an advantage in it," he told reporters on Monday.

[...]
Attal said measures would include expanding compulsory school attendance to all the days of the week from 8am to 6pm for children of college age. He said parents needed to take more responsibility, warning that particularly disruptive children would have sanctions marked on their final grades.