PARIS: France will reinforce police with troops and mount a huge security operation for more protests planned on Saturday, the government said on Tuesday, acknowledging failures in its response to last weekend’s violence.
“The deployment next Saturday will be massive,” Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said, adding that the immediate priority was to restore order after rioting and looting swept Paris, Marseille, Lyon and other cities on October 17.
In a sometimes rowdy debate, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the military would be deployed alongside police, while the government pledged to overhaul tactics after widespread criticism that city centres had been left vulnerable.
France wants curfews in some areas after weekend of riots
Targeted curfews help restore calm
Framing the crisis as a choice “between violence and the Republic”, Lecornu blamed the unrest on far-left groups, who in turn have accused the government of underestimating public anger over high living costs and declining public services.
The unrest shocked France because of both its scale and the apparent inability of police to contain it, inflaming tensions ahead of presidential elections next year with candidates from the far right and hard left performing strongly in polls.
Protests in other European countries, including Italy and Albania, have added to concerns that anger over living standards risks spreading around the continent at a time when many nations, including France, are struggling with budget woes.
A night of relative calm in France followed targeted curfews imposed in several areas affected by the turmoil, which the government said had helped reassert control.
In central Paris, police emptied and guarded the Place de la Republique overnight, with a helicopter overhead. In Lille, in the north, where the curfew only applied to minors, officers patrolled the city centre, checking bypassers’ identities.
Tear gas, clashes hit French cities in cost-of-living protests
Marseille mayor Benoit Payan said there would be curfews for minors around the commercial areas hardest hit by the weekend’s riots, starting Tuesday night.
Lecornu acknowledged shortcomings in the state’s response at the weekend, saying there had been intelligence failures, while police deployments had been too static and authorities had decided against cancelling planned police leave.
Nunez apologised for the failings. “I deeply regret what happened. I accept my share of responsibility,” he said.
Suspect arrested for limoges town hall destruction
Parliament is setting up a commission of inquiry to establish the causes of the unrest, while authorities have assigned 200 investigators to identify and track down those involved in the street violence.
Police arrested on Tuesday a man suspected of starting a blaze that destroyed a historic town hall in the central city of Limoges during the rioting. Officials said he had been on a security watch list and belonged to an ultra-left group.
Students and teachers march in France on biggest day of high school protests
Sylvain Maillard, a Renaissance deputy for Paris, told Reuters some apps had become “a walkie-talkie system for rioters and looters”.
Underscoring the broad impact of the crisis, French borrowing costs rose further on Tuesday as investors fretted about the prospect of more unrest, with the yield on benchmark 10-year government bonds touching its highest level in 24 years.
France’s main student union UNEF has called for further protests on Saturday, pledging to maintain pressure on Macron’s government over what it says is a deteriorating and underfunded education system. “We carry on,” it said on social media.
Separately, groups identifying themselves as “Gilets Jaunes” (Yellow Vests) called for protest actions over rising fuel costs.
The yellow vest movement, largely inactive in recent years, sprang up in 2018 during Macron’s first term over plans to raise petrol taxes. Traffic blockades continued for months until the government made costly concessions it can ill afford now.
Italy faces new form of unrest, minister says
Northern Italian cities, including the financial capital Milan, were also hit by riots last weekend.
Though not on the scale seen in France, the unrest nonetheless jolted Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government, which was expected to introduce new security measures at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Defence Minister Guido Crosetto described the disturbances as a form of “hybrid warfare” conducted through social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and other online networks.
“The events in Milan and elsewhere in Italy are fundamentally different from those seen in other eras,” Crosetto wrote on X. “The West has yet to realise this or take any meaningful action in response.”
In Milan’s central Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, sportswear retailer On and a Levi’s store that were targeted during the unrest had reopened on Tuesday but remained boarded up. Luxury stores had restored merchandise to window displays after temporarily removing it for security reasons.
In Albania, protesters were expected to take to the streets of Tirana for a seventh consecutive day against the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama.