France Riots Curfew Hits Paris After Worst Unrest in Years

The France riots curfew landed in Paris on Monday night, after what the government itself admits was a weekend when police lost control of the streets. From eleven at night until six on Tuesday morning, nobody is allowed to enter or stay around the Place de la République or the shopping district of Les Halles, according to The Guardian.

What the curfew actually covers

Paris police say the order exists to protect people and property from violence and looting. Gatherings and demonstrations are also banned in parts of the city from eight in the evening. The Place de la République is where rioting broke out on Saturday, while Les Halles has been hit by looting, as CBC News reports.

It is not only the capital. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu called for local and partial curfews after an emergency cabinet meeting, and four northern cities, including Lille, will see restrictions from eight at night to six in the morning on Monday and Tuesday nights. Lecornu said a full curfew on entire cities was out of the question, and that a state of emergency could be declared if needed, though partial curfews seemed more appropriate for now.

Marseille, France's second city, went its own way and banned all gatherings and demonstrations on Monday. Over at the Louvre, protesters blocked the entrance, so the world's biggest museum could not open on schedule.

How a protest turned into chaos

Saturday's marches were organised by students, teachers, parents, unions and workers, and they focused on the high cost of living. The same worry sparked demonstrations in Italy, Belgium and Albania over the weekend, so this is not just a French story. In France, the movement follows weeks of high school student protests that already involved clashes with police, and it comes six months before a presidential election.

Then it got ugly. Peaceful marches were hijacked, and public buildings, including a town hall, were set on fire. Authorities estimate that about two thousand shops were ransacked and looted. One video game shop owner near the Place de la République told reporters he closed up on Saturday afternoon, then watched looters force their way in on his security cameras.

The government admits it got this wrong

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said there was a lack of anticipation. Intelligence had pointed to around two hundred thousand demonstrators, yet more than five hundred thousand turned up. Sixty thousand police and security forces were deployed, and it still was not enough against organised groups of violent rioters in Paris, Marseille and Lyon.

Nuñez offered his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron, saying he felt responsible for everything that happened. Macron refused it and instead demanded transparency over the planning and intelligence failures, plus new operational methods for police on the ground. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin added that there is no good policing without good intelligence.

The numbers behind the unrest

According to Darmanin, as relayed by The Guardian, two thousand five hundred and thirteen people have been arrested and sixty-seven jailed since the violence began. About seventy percent of those detained were adults, and about eighty percent are being prosecuted. Nearly one thousand police and gendarmes were injured. In Paris alone, the mayor said around thirty shops were targeted on Sunday and about three hundred and fifty people were arrested overnight.

The online side matters too. France's digital minister urged resale platforms to take down listings for stolen items and summoned Vinted and eBay, while Amazon, Leboncoin, Meta and TikTok were also invited to talks.

What happens next

The political fight is already heating up. Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said the state was at fault this weekend and that the protests will continue, because there is no political way out in sight. Marseille's mayor Benoît Payan called the situation almost insurrectional. French unions have called for another round of strikes and rallies on the fifth of November, and the Yellow Vest movement has called for protests on Saturday, according to France 24.

For young people across Europe, the lesson is blunt: rent, fuel and food prices are now strong enough to put hundreds of thousands in the street. Whether the France riots curfew calms things down tonight, or just pushes the anger somewhere else, will be the test. For more stories like this, check out our world coverage.