* Riots force security to top of Hollande's agenda
* Left wants a more "community policing" style
* Public see law and order as Left's weak point
PARIS, Aug 16 (Reuters) - President Francois Hollande must
perform a delicate balancing act after riots in the French city
of Amiens, ensuring a tough stance on crime without alienating
left-wing supporters or reviving memories of his hardline
predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.
Hollande pledged zero tolerance after the two days of unrest
in Amiens left 17 police officers injured and sparked fears of a
repeat of the urban riots which swept France in 2005, in the
first security challenge of his three-month-old presidency.
The restive Fafet neighbourhood in the northern city of
Amiens was calm for a second straight night but some on France's
left voiced unease at the sight of a Socialist government,
elected in May on pledges of helping the poor inhabitants of
urban ghettos, deploying hundreds of riot police there.
"A hundred days after Francois Hollande took office, the
security trap is closing around him and his interior minister,
who are failing to mark their distance from Nicolas Sarkozy,"
the left-leaning daily Liberation said in an editorial.
Political analysts said, however, the government was sending
a clear message that it would not tolerate a repeat of the
violence in a bid to convince voters, who overwhelmingly favour
a hard line on crime, that it is up to the task.
A poll for right-leaning newspaper Le Figaro on Saturday,
before the riots began, showed only 35 percent trusted him on
public safety. Hollande had savaged Sarkozy's tough stance on
delinquency during the campaign for May's presidential runoff.
"The government is trying to strike a balance between
breaking with the traditional Left by being tough on crime while
restoring the community policing which was scrapped under
Sarkozy due to cutbacks," said Stephane Rozes of the CAP
political consultancy.
The Alliance police union said Sarkozy's government cut
around 5,000 police jobs from 2008 to 2012 as it struggled to
rein in the government deficit during the financial crisis.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls pledged on Thursday to roll
back those cuts by adding 500 officers a year from 2013 - one of
Hollande's campaign promises - to improve urban security.
At the same time, Valls carefully distanced himself from
Sarkozy, whose pledge as interior minister in 2005 that he would
sweep the "scum" out of the neighbourhoods with a powerful
Karcher water cannon polarised opinion.
"I have not come here to see them turn the Karcher on this
neighbourhood," Valls said on arriving in Amiens.
RIGHT MUTED
However, Valls' plans to boost policing in 15 priority areas
across France - including the Amiens region - came under
scrutiny after some Fafet residents blamed heavy-handed policing
for sparking the riots.
The first clashes on Sunday took place after officers
aggressively questioned a dozen youths who had gathered to pay
homage to a friend who died in a scooter accident.
France's right-wing UMP opposition has mostly remained
silent, though the right-leaning Le Figaro daily questioned why
no-one had been arrested five days after the violence began.
The first arrests finally came in a pre-dawn raid on
Thursday, when police detained five youths on charges ranging
from arson to robbery, trafficking and incitement to
violence.
Police unions, however, said this was increasingly the norm.
"Sometimes the first priority is to re-establish calm," said
Jean-Claude Delage, secretary general of Alliance.
Thomas Lavielle, an official from the local prefect's
office, said further arrests were expected as police examined
ballistics evidence, DNA traces and video footage to build a
cast-iron case against the rioters.
Local Socialist mayor Gilles Demailly said that rampant
unemployment - running as high as 45 percent in Fafet - was at
the root of the problem.
With France's economy expected to remain weak as the euro
zone crisis drags on and the government pares spending to
control its deficit, analysts said Amiens may not be the last
security test for Hollande.
"The economic crisis and the high level of unemployment in
many neighbourhoods means there is potential, as in other
European countries, for more unrest," Rozes said.
"The issue is not whether the government can prevent this,
but to see whether it can find a way of restoring social
equilibrium in the long term."