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Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu stated that targeted curfews contributed to a calm night across France following a weekend of riots and looting, according to his post on X reported by multiple outlets including France 24 and Reuters. The prime minister thanked police officers, gendarmes and prefects for enforcing the measures that restricted movement and gatherings in specific urban zones. Lecornu added that local authorities would decide on further curfews for the coming night based on conditions on the ground, with decisions made by regional officials and mayors rather than a nationwide mandate. The approach avoided a full curfew in Paris while focusing on hotspots where violence had flared.
Protests that began last month with students calling for improved school conditions broadened to include cost-of-living grievances and drew support from trade unions, Reuters reported. More than half a million people participated in demonstrations on Saturday across the country, Bloomberg data shows, yet the events quickly degenerated into vandalism, arson and widespread looting in several cities. The unrest continued into Sunday in central Paris and other areas, prompting the government to convene an emergency ministerial meeting on Monday. Officials described the violence as orchestrated in part by far-left groups seeking to destabilise the country ahead of next year’s presidential election.
Interior Ministry figures placed the number of arrests above 2,500 since the disorder erupted, with 2,397 recorded on Saturday alone and another 108 in Paris the following night. Roughly 1,000 police officers sustained injuries during the clashes, while one demonstrator lost a hand to a crowd-control grenade, the AFP news agency said. No fatalities occurred despite the scale of the property damage, a point Lecornu described as miraculous after the Monday crisis meeting. The toll underscored the intensity of the confrontations that targeted shops, public buildings and even residential apartments in some districts.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez acknowledged that police forces had not been fully prepared for the speed and extent of the violence, a statement carried by The New York Times. Nuñez offered his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron, but the offer was declined, according to the Elysee presidential office. Lecornu, speaking after the ministerial gathering, blamed a shadowy network of far-left instigators for seeking to create profound disorder and ruled out a blanket curfew across the entire capital while insisting that order would be restored. The government also pledged financial support for recovery in affected areas, with costs to be recovered from those responsible.
Curfews took effect in central Paris from 11 p.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday in areas including Place de la République and the Les Halles shopping district, Paris police announced. Similar restrictions applied in Lyon from 9 p.m. in the central zone where a tourist office had been set ablaze, along with a ban on public gatherings from 6 p.m., France 24 detailed. Authorities imposed partial curfews or movement limits for young people in Marseille, Bordeaux, Nice, Lille and several smaller northern towns, with some measures extending to Tuesday night. These localised steps followed direct instructions from Lecornu to regional prefects after shopkeepers voiced concerns over ongoing looting.
The weekend events marked the most significant unrest in France in years and arrived at a moment of political and economic strain, Bloomberg noted in its assessment of the situation. Protests and occasional street violence are not uncommon, as seen during the Yellow Vest movement in 2018 and riots in 2023, yet the current scale surprised authorities six months before the presidential vote. Surging debt, a weak economy and broader cost-of-living pressures have amplified public discontent, according to analysts cited across reports. The violence damaged or looted at least 3,000 businesses nationwide, with overall costs estimated below 1.2 billion euros so far, Morningstar DBRS global head of insurance Marcos Alvarez told Bloomberg.
Lecornu emphasised that further security reinforcements would remain in place for upcoming events, including a Paris Saint-Germain football match, as the interior minister confirmed no cancellation was planned. Cleanup operations began in affected neighbourhoods while officials reviewed intelligence failures that allowed fast-moving groups to overwhelm initial police deployments. The combination of curfews and heightened presence appears to have deterred further disorder, though authorities cautioned that measures would adapt based on daily assessments by local leaders.
