France's government moved to tighten control on Monday after a weekend of rioting and looting, with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu instructing prefects to impose 'very limited' and 'localised' curfews for Monday night in the areas worst affected by the unrest.
Lecornu ruled out a blanket curfew for Paris but made clear that a state of emergency remains an option if the curfews prove insufficient. The weekend disorder followed weeks of student and cost-of-living protests; officials have put arrests at roughly 2,400, about 90 per cent of them adults, and thousands of businesses were damaged or looted, with Limoges city hall among the public buildings destroyed.
The prime minister blamed the 'ultra-left' for exploiting the protests, defended the police response, and said no one was killed on Saturday despite severe violence and property damage — a toll the government is citing as it tries to draw a line under the unrest without escalating to nationwide emergency measures.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said there were no plans to cancel Tuesday's Paris Saint-Germain versus Barcelona football match, a fixture officials appear determined to stage as a signal that normal life is resuming even as curfew orders are drawn up for Monday night.
