France protests: first partial curfews in Paris, Lyon, Lille and Nice after Lecornu's crisis meeting; Macron rejects Nuñez's resignation

Update, 11:07pm GMT Monday: Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin told TF1 on Monday evening that France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office (PNAT) was following the investigation into Saturday’s fire at Limoges town hall as an observer and would decide “in the coming hours” whether to take over the case, Le Figaro, TF1 Info and La République du Centre reported (our translation). Mr Darmanin said people “notably from the ultra-left” had “evidently” organised the act, Le Figaro reported. Le Figaro also reported that people had been taken into custody in Limoges over looting, but that no one had yet been arrested over the fire. No national figures for the first night of curfews had been published as of 11:07pm GMT.

Update, 9:07pm GMT Monday: Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez visited Marseille on Monday evening and, after talks with Mayor Benoît Payan, said police would deploy “a very large police operation” in the coming days, “potentially Saturday”, with more officers than last Saturday, franceinfo reported (our translation). He said 300 to 400 shops had been damaged in the city. Mr Payan called the talks “frank and salutary”. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin told TF1 he had instructed all prosecutors to treat the cases as organised crime, which allows police custody to be extended from 48 to 72 hours and phone tapping and geolocation to be used, TF1 Info and franceinfo reported. He said 67 people had been jailed, 34 of them in the Aix-Marseille appeal court area. Bordeaux will impose a curfew on unaccompanied minors from 10pm to 7am in city-centre areas hit by looting, from Tuesday until Monday 26 October, and Mr Lecornu will visit Limoges on Friday, where the town hall was damaged by fire on Saturday, franceinfo reported.

Update, 7:14pm GMT Monday: Authorities have imposed the first partial curfews. The Paris police prefecture banned movement on the Place de la République and around Les Halles from 11pm Monday to 6am Tuesday Paris time (8am to 4am GMT Tuesday), with residents, people working there, emergency services and shopkeepers exempt, and banned gatherings from 8pm in wider central areas and near the main railway stations, The Local, AP and the BBC reported. Lyon’s prefecture set a partial curfew from 9pm to 6am, and Mr Lecornu’s office said curfews from 8pm to 6am on Monday and Tuesday would apply in Lille, Douai, Wattignies and Denain, the BBC and AFP reported. The mayor of Nice imposed a curfew for young people from 9pm each night until Sunday, the BBC reported.

“We will not be dictated and ruled by the breakers, by the thieves, by the thugs,” Mr Lecornu said, in the BBC’s translation. He said the unrest was being led by “ultra-left radical groups” seeking to “create chaos” before the 2027 presidential election, the BBC reported; its Paris correspondent said Jean-Luc Mélenchon responded by asking for evidence and blaming the government. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said 2,513 people had been taken into police custody since the weekend and 67 jailed, AFP reported. Mr Nuñez said Tuesday’s Champions League match between Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona would go ahead, the BBC reported, citing AP.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Monday 19 October that prefects could impose partial and “very localised” curfews, after chairing an interministerial crisis meeting on the weekend’s rioting and looting. BFMTV quoted him as saying he had asked prefects to put “a certain number” in place from Monday evening.

Speaking at Matignon after the meeting, which began at 10am Paris time, Mr Lecornu said a “massive judicial operation” was starting that day and called for a “high penal response”, BFMTV reported. He said about 80% of people arrested over the weekend face criminal charges, the BBC reported. He said 100% short-time work cover (chômage partiel) would be triggered from Tuesday for shops hit by damage and looting, with a dedicated support fund, saying there was “a need for cash flow”.

Interior minister stays

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez offered his resignation, but President Emmanuel Macron refused it “given the need for continued command of law enforcement in the current context”, the Élysée said on Monday, AP reported. Mr Macron asked him to deploy “new modes of action” against rioters as quickly as possible and to ensure transparency over “failures in planning and intelligence-gathering”, AP and Le Parisien reported.

Mr Nuñez told France Inter that police had “lost control” in some big cities on Saturday, Euronews reported. He said intelligence services had forecast about 200,000 demonstrators, against more than 550,000 on the day, the BBC reported, and that about 60,000 police and gendarmes were deployed, Les Echos reported. He is due in Marseille on Monday afternoon, Les Echos reported; the city’s police prefecture banned all gatherings and demonstrations there from noon to 8pm Monday, the BBC and Les Echos reported.

Figures

Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said 2,331 people had been placed in police custody nationwide since Saturday, BFMTV reported. The Paris prosecutor’s office said at least 145 people were in custody on Monday morning after Sunday night’s looting, France 24 reported. The head of CCI France, Alain Di Crescenzo, told RTL that more than 2,000 businesses had been hit, with damage of “hundreds of millions of euros”, the BBC reported. The Paris prosecutor’s office said checks were under way into two deaths in Paris over the weekend; the circumstances, including any link to the unrest, had not been established, BFMTV reported.

Opposition and protest organisers

National Rally president Jordan Bardella said neither he nor Marine Le Pen would attend Mr Lecornu’s meeting with party leaders and that a party vice-president would go instead, France 24 reported. The mayors of Paris, Lyon and Marseille called for an independent inquiry into the policing, the BBC reported. The yellow vest coordination behind Saturday’s protests announced an “Act II” for 24 and 31 October, France 24 reported, citing AFP.

Figures as of 10:45am GMT Monday. For Sunday’s events, see our earlier report; for earlier calls for Mr Nuñez to resign, see this report.