France has turned to night curfews as it struggles with large-scale violent protests that have spread nationwide. With the government facing blame for extensive damage and some figures even calling for President Emmanuel Macron to step down early, protest groups are planning further rallies, raising concerns that the turmoil could drag on.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on the 19th, local time, that he had issued instructions for regions to implement curfew measures after a meeting of the emergency response committee, according to The Associated Press and other outlets. Paris police accordingly banned protests in some areas from 8 p.m. and restricted movement around Place de la République and the Les Halles district from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following morning. Limited curfews were also imposed in Lille, Douai and other cities. Lecornu said the government would not rule out declaring a state of emergency if the situation deteriorates.
The government moved to a tougher stance because the violence has kept security concerns from subsiding. According to the Interior Ministry, about 2,400 people have been arrested over the unrest and roughly 1,000 police and other security personnel have been injured. A French retail industry group estimated that about 3,000 stores nationwide suffered looting and property damage, with losses running into hundreds of millions of euros.
Whether the situation will calm down remains unclear. The "yellow vest" movement has announced another mass rally on the 24th, saying it will open the protests' "second act." Major French labor unions also plan new strikes and rallies on the 5th of next month.
Distrust of the government is deepening as a result. Criticism has been especially sharp over the security authorities' failure to prevent the widespread violence. French intelligence agencies initially estimated turnout at about 200,000 nationwide, but 550,000 people took to the streets by the government's count — 800,000 according to organizers. The government said it deployed 60,000 police and other security personnel, though some have noted that the number actually able to respond to violence on the ground was far smaller. French retailers said years of work and effort had been wiped out in a matter of hours.
Some observers say the unrest will further weaken Macron, who has six months left in office. Parts of the political establishment have gone as far as to discuss an early exit for the president. Reuters noted that Macron came to power a decade ago promising to shake up France's rigid political establishment, accelerate economic reform and restore state authority, but is now effectively a lame duck grappling with unrest that has exposed the limits of state power.
French government bonds, already weak, fell further as the protests drew attention to fiscal instability. The yield on the 10-year French government bond rose 0.12 percentage points from the previous session to 4.9%, widening the spread over the 10-year German bund, considered a safer asset, to 1.45 percentage points.