The curfew prohibits anyone from entering or remaining on the Place de la Republique, where rioting took place Saturday, and the shopping neighborhood of Les Halles, which has been subject to looting, the Paris police said. It will be in effect from 11 pm Monday until 6 am Tuesday. Gatherings and demonstrations are banned from 8 pm.
In northern France, local authorities imposed a curfew for children and teenagers under age 18 in several cities, including Lille, from 8 pm to 6 am for the next two days. Nice on the French Riviera also imposed an overnight curfew for minors from 9 pm.
The unrest followed nationwide protests Saturday against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools. At least 2,400 people were arrested across the country. Authorities estimated Monday that at least 3,000 businesses were damaged or looted in several cities.
Prime Minister Lecornu defended police handling, saying that “despite scenes of severe violence and extensive property damage, no one was killed, and that is a miracle.” He said details of the curfews would be announced later Monday after consultations with mayors.
Interior Minister Nunez offered his resignation Sunday, but President Macron refused it “given the need for continued command of law enforcement in the current context,” Macron’s office said in a statement Monday. Macron instructed Nunez “to take all necessary steps to ensure full transparency about the failures in planning and intelligence-gathering that led to the violence” and asked for the introduction of “new policing tactics on the ground as quickly as possible.”
Nunez acknowledged on France Inter radio that authorities had “lost control” in some major cities on Saturday. “You can’t look shopkeepers in the eye when hundreds of businesses have been looted and say we haven’t lost control in some of these major cities,” he said. Nunez blamed the violence on “hordes of troublemakers and looters” and “far-left activists,” saying that police strategy needs to be adapted “in the face of extremely mobile groups.”
The violence included fire at the 19th-century City Hall in Limoges, causing its roof to collapse and nearly destroying the building. In Paris, Ouri Zagoury, owner of a video game shop near Place de la Republique, said he saw looters forcing their way in on surveillance cameras. “There were so many people coming in and out. And even though I called the police, they said not to intervene, that they would come, but they never did, which is another problem,” Zagoury said.
Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally party, pointed to the government’s failure to prevent violence. “The government has failed, the head of state has failed in his essential duty of protecting the French people,” he told reporters. He called on people “now, beyond their right to protest, to use their voting power.” Bardella is campaigning alongside far-right leader Marine Le Pen, whose polling numbers have suggested for months that she is the front-runner in next spring’s presidential election.