PARIS: Paris police issued an overnight curfew on Monday in two areas of the French capital, after a weekend marred by France’s worst rioting in years that targeted city halls, other public buildings and thousands of businesses across the country, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The order aims to protect “people and property from the violence and looting,” the Paris police statement said.
The curfew prohibits anyone from entering or remaining on the Place de la Republique, where rioting took place Saturday, and the shopping neighbourhood of Les Halles, which has been subject to looting.
The curfew will be in effect from 11pm Monday until 6am Tuesday. In addition, gatherings and demonstrations are banned from 8pm, the Paris police said.
Earlier Monday, prime minister Sebastien Lecornu had called for “very limited” and “localised” curfews.
In northern France, local authorities imposed a curfew for children and teenagers under age 18 in several cities, including Lille, starting from Monday and for the next two days from 8pm to 6am. Nice, on the French Riviera, also imposed an overnight curfew for minors from 9pm.
Lecornu defended police handling of the unrest, saying that “despite scenes of severe violence and extensive property damage, no one was killed, and that is a miracle.”
He said that details of the curfews would be announced later Monday after consultations with mayors.
Mass protests in France are often tainted by violence on the fringes of otherwise peaceful marches, leading to clashes with police.
Saturday’s unrest recalled the riots that followed the fatal police shooting of a teenager in 2023, when authorities imposed local curfews, and violence during the yellow vest movement that began in 2018 over fuel prices and broader economic grievances.
The prime minister's instructions come after interior minister Laurent Nunez offered his resignation Sunday.
President Emmanuel Macron refused it “given the need for continued command of law enforcement in the current context,” Macron's office said in a statement Monday.
He instructed Nunez “to take all necessary steps to ensure full transparency about the failures in planning and intelligence-gathering that led to the violence,” the statement said.
Macron also asked for the introduction of “new policing tactics on the ground as quickly as possible” to put an end to the violence.
On Sunday evening, groups set fire to trash bins, bicycles and other objects in the streets and looted businesses in Paris, Lyon, Marseille and other cities.
That followed the violence during nationwide protests Saturday against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools. At least 2,400 people were arrested across the country.
Authorities estimated Monday that at least 3,000 businesses were damaged or looted in several cities.
In Marseille, the prefect banned any protest or other gatherings from noon to 8pm Monday.
“I submitted my resignation because I am responsible for everything that is happening,” Nunez said on France Inter radio. “Now the real issue is ensuring that this doesn’t happen again. … We obviously need to be better at anticipating the kind of mobilisation that is unfolding."
Nunez blamed the violence on “hordes of troublemakers and looters” and “far-left activists,” and said that police strategy needs to be adapted “in the face of extremely mobile groups.”
Authorities said that groups of hundreds of people sought confrontations with police and targeted public buildings, including city halls and other public offices.
Nunez acknowledged that authorities had “lost control” in some major cities on Saturday.
“You can’t look shopkeepers in the eye when hundreds of businesses have been looted and say we haven’t lost control in some of these major cities,” Nunez said.
Flames engulfed the 19th-century City Hall in Limoges, in central France, causing its roof to collapse and nearly destroying the building.
On Monday, cleanup crews and firefighters cleared shattered glass and other debris from the streets of Paris.
Ouri Zagoury, owner of a video game shop near Paris' Place de la Republique, said that he closed the store Saturday afternoon, but then saw looters forcing their way in on surveillance cameras.
“There were so many people coming in and out. And even though I called the police, they said not to intervene, that they would come, but they never did, which is another problem," Zagoury said.
Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally party, pointed to the government's failure to prevent violence.
“The government has failed, the head of state has failed in his essential duty of protecting the French people,” he told reporters at the party's headquarters.
“I call on the people of France now, beyond their right to protest, to use their voting power,” Bardella said. He is campaigning alongside far-right leader Marine Le Pen, whose polling numbers have suggested for months that she's the front-runner in next spring's presidential election.