France: Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announces curfews

Closed metro station: “There is no question of placing the whole of Paris under a curfew”

After the serious riots and looting at the weekend in France, the French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced the imposition of local curfews.

He had instructed the competent authorities to take appropriate measures for the evening, Lecornu said on Monday in front of journalists. He is determined to restore public order. If necessary, a state of emergency could also be declared. At the moment, however, partial curfews are more appropriate.

“These curfews must be local and limited,” Lecornu said. He emphasized: “There is no question of placing the whole of Paris under a curfew.” Which cities should be affected, he initially left open. The football match between Paris Saint-Germain and FC Barcelona in the Champions League scheduled for Tuesday evening is scheduled to take place as planned. In the nationwide protests against the high cost of living, there were street battles between protesters and the police in several French cities over the weekend. Rioters looted hundreds of businesses.

Emmanuel Grégoire, Mayor of Paris

According to the Interior Ministry, more than 2000 people were arrested and more than 600 officers injured. Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin acknowledged weaknesses in the security apparatus. The authorities were successful against terrorism, but not against extreme left protesters. “Obviously, they are not acting effectively against the extreme left,” Darmanin told France 2.

President Emmanuel Macron rejected a resignation offer from Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez to secure the chain of command. He instructed Nuñez to develop new concepts against looters. In Marseille, the authorities for Monday temporarily banned public gatherings.

In Paris, it had come after renewed riots on Sunday also in the night to looting again, said Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire and spoke of “intolerable scenes”. “It wasn’t the size of Saturday, but there were groups of looters spread over several districts,” Grégoire told France Inter. According to Interior Minister Nuñez, 351 people were arrested in Paris yesterday and during the night.

The Federal Foreign Office in Berlin adapted its travel and security advice for France.

The yellow vest protest movement has announced new demonstrations for next Saturday. On October 24, there will be a “second act” of the protests, said the organizers of the rallies of the weekend on their website. It will be demonstrated again in dozens of places.

The protest of the yellow vests against high costs of living and social injustice had kept France between November 2018 and spring 2019 in breath. Their name goes back to the fact that many of the protesters wore yellow high-visibility vests. Before the protest weekend, there had been a call to revive the movement.