PARIS ― French leaders faced mounting scrutiny on Monday over their handling of a weekend of riots that stunned the country.
Rioters torched public buildings and smashed storefronts. At least 2,400 people were arrested. The government has ordered curfews in some neighborhoods of Paris and other cities, as it rushes to restore order after France’s worst unrest in years. Officials acknowledged failure to contain the chaos and looting that left city streets strewn with debris.
The disorder followed weeks of protests that began with student walkouts over school funding. But it grew, with the backing of labor unions, into a broad display of anger about cuts to public spending and other grievances with French President Emmanuel Macron’s government.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez conceded that police had “lost control” over the weekend. There was a “lack of anticipation,” and police were not sufficiently prepared to contain the nighttime rioting that spiraled from scheduled protests on Saturday.
He offered his resignation to Macron. Macron rejected it, however, his office said in a statement, to maintain “continued leadership of law enforcement.” Instead, Macron ordered a security review to “ensure transparency over the failures in planning and intelligence that led to the violence.”
The cabinet convened on Monday to assess the fallout. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu vowed an “absolute” determination to reassert order and would deploy “all the tools at the government’s disposal.”
Lecornu announced that curfews on Monday night would be restricted to particular areas for “the protection of people, but also shops,” without specifying where.
Parts of Paris would be under curfew from 11 p.m. Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday, police said. Authorities barred protests beginning Monday evening in several parts of the capital, including near train stations and public buildings such as the Elysée presidential palace and the parliament.
As ministers accepted liability for the government response, Lecornu focused blame on what he described as a shadowy movement of “ultraleft” agitators orchestrating “profound disorder in the country” ahead of next year’s presidential election.
“While we witnessed very difficult scenes involving violence against property, no one was killed, and that is a miracle,” Lecornu told reporters. He pledged a huge law enforcement operation to round up vandals, with “practically 200 investigators” in Paris.
Authorities said over 2,400 people across the country were detained after masked rioters broke into city halls or defaced businesses late Saturday night in cities including Marseille, Bordeaux, Limoges, Lyon and Lille.
More than half a million people marched over rising cost of living and energy prices on Saturday, before the demonstrations descended into mayhem. Officials said mobs on the fringes clashed with police while looters seized on the chaos to ransack shops and restaurants.
The government has blamed the hard-left leader and presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon for stirring up violence. Melenchon called on the prime minister Monday to show proof, or “keep quiet and stop fueling the disorder.”
Some analysts said the dramatic scenes could give a boost to far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who was already leading in the polls and has embraced the moment as a key matter for her presidential campaign.
In a video taking aim at the “extreme left” and the president’s leadership, Le Pen sat at a desk Sunday night, casting herself as the right candidate to bring back stability amid unrest.
She said popular sentiment was hijacked “by thugs sowing chaos” in French cities. “In six months,” Le Pen added, “the French people will be able to choose a different path: That of restored authority and security.”
The tensions in France’s streets come as the government is trying to approve budget cuts and reassure markets that are jittery about the state of the country’s finances.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said on French television Monday that authorities had “undeniably failed” during the weekend’s rioting and were working to “understand what went wrong.” He pointed in part to “a failure in intelligence.”
In Marseille, on France’s southern Mediterranean coast, local officials had announceda ban on demonstrations Monday.
Overnight curfews for minors were also announced in parts of Lille, as well as a central district of the Mediterranean city of Nice on Sunday night. The mayor of Nice, Eric Ciotti, said the restriction would remain in place every night until next Sunday.
Some local officials have called for the government to declare a national state of emergency, while mayors issued scathing criticism. Marseille’s Benoît Payan described “a near-total loss of control,” while Lyon’s Grégory Doucet demanded a “complete diagnosis of what happened.”
The interior ministry said the deployment of security forces would be reinforced around the country, especially over the weekend. There are already calls from some protest groups for another day of demonstration on Saturday, and French trade unions have called for a new round of strikes on November 5.
Walsh reported from London.
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