France’s Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has asked regional authorities to consider imposing partial curfews in some cities following violent weekend protests, as the government acknowledged that police had “lost control” in several locations. According to The Guardian, Lecornu made the announcement after an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday, saying he…...
France’s Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has asked regional authorities to consider imposing partial curfews in some cities following violent weekend protests, as the government acknowledged that police had “lost control” in several locations.
According to The Guardian, Lecornu made the announcement after an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday, saying he was “fully resolved to restore public order” and had called for “local and partial” curfews where necessary.
He ruled out imposing a blanket curfew across entire cities such as Paris, insisting there was “no question” of such a measure at this stage.
Lecornu told reporters that if declaring a state of emergency was deemed necessary “we could do so”, but added that partial curfews appeared “more appropriate”. He did not identify the cities that could be affected or specify how the restrictions would be implemented.
His comments followed an admission by France’s Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez, that police had “lost control” in some cities during Saturday’s demonstrations. President Emmanuel Macron has also ordered a comprehensive security review and demanded “new operational methods” to end the unrest.
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Nuñez said there had been a “lack of anticipation” in preparations for the protests, acknowledging that police numbers were sometimes insufficient to deal with rioters and looters operating on the fringes of the demonstrations.
He explained that intelligence assessments had predicted about 200,000 demonstrators nationwide, but more than 500,000 people eventually took part, with peaceful protests being hijacked by violent groups.
The interior minister said he had offered his resignation to Macron because he felt “responsible for everything that happened”. However, the president rejected the offer and directed him to “take all necessary steps to ensure transparency over planning and intelligence failures”.
The protests followed weeks of demonstrations by high school students, some of which had been marked by violent clashes with police. The unrest has shaken France six months before a crucial presidential election, amid growing economic pressures.
Authorities said public buildings, including a town hall, were attacked and set ablaze, while an estimated 2,000 shops were ransacked and looted. Nearly 2,400 people, about 70 per cent of them adults, were arrested, while almost 1,000 police officers and gendarmes were injured.
Nuñez said 60,000 police officers and other security personnel had been deployed across the country but acknowledged that the number was insufficient to contain organised groups of violent rioters in major cities, including Paris, Marseille and Lyon.
“You couldn’t look shopkeepers in the eye after hundreds of shops had been looted and say we hadn’t lost control,” the minister told French radio.
However, he warned against overlooking the responsibility of “rioters, looters and ultra-left militants” for the violence.
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Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin also acknowledged intelligence failures, saying they had left the state vulnerable to the unrest.
“There’s no good policing without good intelligence,” he said, adding that many of those arrested had previous police records and that “about 80%” were being prosecuted.
In a statement on Monday, Macron’s office said Nuñez had been tasked with reviewing security shortcomings and “promptly implementing new operational methods for security forces to use on the ground in combating rioters”.
Rioting and looting continued on Sunday, with Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire saying about 30 shops had been targeted in the capital, while another 350 people were arrested overnight.
“Maintaining public order is the responsibility of the state. It is the state that was at fault this weekend,” Grégoire said.
He added, “We have a social movement that is spreading, and no political prospect for a constructive way out. So the protests will continue.”
Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan said the unrest had undermined not only democracy but also “the very foundations of the Republic”.
Describing the situation as “almost insurrectional”, Payan accused the government of engaging in “petty political manoeuvring”.
Meanwhile, protesters blocked entrances to the Louvre Museum on Monday in support of the nationwide high school student movement and to denounce “police repression”. The museum was unable to open at its scheduled time because of the demonstration.
A leaflet displayed outside the museum read: “We are proud to announce that we are blocking the world’s largest museum.”
In a televised address on Sunday, Macron condemned what he called “unbridled” violence and said local authorities would be allowed to ban some demonstrations in the coming days. However, he stopped short of declaring a state of emergency or imposing a curfew.
Saturday’s demonstrations involved students, teachers, parents, unions and workers protesting against the high cost of living, an issue that also triggered demonstrations in Italy, Belgium and Albania over the weekend.