French authorities have imposed curfews and restrictions on public gatherings in several cities, including Paris, Lille and Nice, following a weekend of riots and looting that has intensified pressure on the government over security failures.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu ruled out a blanket curfew across Paris for now but did not exclude the possibility of declaring a state of emergency. He said localised restrictions were more appropriate at this stage.
“My determination to restore order is absolute,” Lecornu told reporters.
Paris police prohibited protests in certain areas of the capital from 8pm on Monday and imposed a curfew around Place de la République and Les Halles from 11pm until 6am on Tuesday.
In Lille, Douai, Wattignies and Denain, a curfew for minors aged under 18 was imposed from 8pm to 6am for two days, with the agreement of local mayors.
Nice mayor Eric Ciotti also announced an overnight curfew for minors in the city centre, while Marseille banned gatherings and demonstrations.
Meanwhile, French trade unions have called for another round of strikes and rallies on November 5.
The unrest followed weeks of student demonstrations and nationwide protests over the cost of living and rising fuel prices. The violence comes six months before France’s next presidential election, amid mounting concerns over the country’s weak economy and growing public debt.
Lecornu blames far-left groups
Lecornu blamed far-left groups for contributing to some of France’s worst unrest in years, accusing them of seeking to destabilise the country ahead of the presidential election.
“There is, after all, a far-left movement that wants to cause — we can’t put it any more strongly — profound unrest in the country in the run-up to the presidential election,” he said.
Hard-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon challenged Lecornu to provide evidence for the allegation, saying the prime minister should apologise and stop inflaming tensions if he could not substantiate his claims.
The Federation of Trade and Retail said almost 3,000 shops had been affected during the weekend’s unrest.
It called for social security and tax relief for affected businesses, warning that shop owners, employees and families had seen years of hard work wiped out within hours.
Lecornu said the government would introduce furlough measures from Tuesday to support affected businesses.
Gerard Nouchi, manager of two clothing shops in Marseille, said there had not been enough police to prevent looting.
“They trashed everything, broke things, insulted us,” he said. “It was like a real tornado.”
The government has also ordered online platforms selling looted goods to remove listings and cooperate with authorities in prosecuting those reselling stolen items.
According to the Interior Ministry, around 2,400 people were arrested during the unrest, one protester died from cardiac arrest on Saturday and nearly 1,000 police officers were injured.
Macron rejects interior minister’s resignation
President Emmanuel Macron rejected Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez’s offer to resign on Monday, instead instructing him to end the barricades and looting and address what Macron described as failures in intelligence and foresight.
Nuñez said Tuesday evening’s Champions League match between Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona would proceed as scheduled.
The mayors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon wrote in the newspaper Libération that they were accustomed to demonstrations but felt that parts of their cities had been left unprotected during Saturday’s violence.
The start of school holidays on Monday could ease tensions, although students continued staging gatherings and blockades at several locations, including the Louvre and Sciences Po university in central Paris.
Luxury shops targeted as unrest spreads
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets over the weekend to protest against what many see as deteriorating and dysfunctional public services.
In Paris, luxury boutiques around Place Vendôme were closed or surrounded by security guards on Monday. The entrance to a Dior boutique was smashed, while windows at other high-end stores, including Rolex, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren and Gucci, were damaged.
In Marseille, football club Olympique de Marseille said its official store along the city’s historic main avenue had been looted. A town hall in Limoges, central France, was also set on fire.
France deployed 60,000 police officers and other security personnel on Saturday, Nuñez told France Inter radio, but acknowledged that the number was insufficient to control violent crowds.
Cost-of-living concerns also fuelled protests in other European countries, including Italy, Belgium and Albania. Several European governments have advised their citizens travelling to France to avoid large crowds and exercise caution.
As French authorities worked to restore order, Macron arrived in Kuwait as part of a Gulf tour aimed at securing additional petrol and diesel supplies to help lower fuel prices.
