France’s banlieues – high-rise, low-income neighbourhoods that encircle many of its cities – are often tinderboxes of anger over social and economic inequality and allegations of heavy-handed police handling. “The government’s laxist approach has, in part, allowed thugs to operate freely,” MEP Nicolas Bay, a senior RN party member, told France 2 television. The government has “failed” to contain the unrest, he added: “What we are seeing is a two-speed lockdown: there are some areas where the rules are strictly respected and others where they are completely ignored.”