Curfews bring calm to Paris as France cracks down on weekend rioters

By TOM NOUVIAN

PARIS (AP) — Paris returned to calm on Tuesday after its first quiet night since a weekend marred by France’s worst rioting in years, as authorities imposed curfews in several cities in an effort to prevent another round of rioting and looting.

At least 2,400 people were arrested after rioters in cities across France on Saturday clashed with police, set cars on fire, stormed public buildings and engulfed a historic city hall in flames, during nationwide protests against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools.

On Sunday evening, small groups set fire to trash bins, bicycles and other objects in the streets and looted businesses in Paris, Lyon, Marseille and other cities.

In the capital, a curfew ran from 11 p.m. on Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday, and a police helicopter circled over Place de la République overnight, a central point in the weekend clashes, sweeping the square with a searchlight to check that the order was being respected.

Early Tuesday morning, workers used a crane to remove a giant fluorescent yellow vest draped over the statue at the center of the square, a reference to the “yellow vest” protests over fuel prices that began in 2018 and shook the first term of President Emmanuel Macron.

Workers then used pressure washers to blast graffiti off the monument.

“The targeted curfews helped keep last night calm,” Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu wrote on X on Tuesday, adding that new curfews would be imposed that night “wherever the situation requires,” decided locally by prefects, the state’s representatives in each region, together with mayors.

Speaking in Lille, northern France, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said 149 people had been jailed nationwide as of Tuesday at noon. According to the Justice Ministry, of the roughly 2,500 people arrested since Saturday, more than 800 have been sent before prosecutors, most of whom were either put on trial immediately or ordered to appear at a later hearing.

In Paris alone, about 300 people have been sent before prosecutors following the Oct. 17 protests, the city prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Darmanin said he asked prosecutors to appeal any sentence they considered too lenient. “People with no criminal record ending up in prison for property crimes is extremely rare, if not unheard of,” he said, arguing that the French justice system will be “extremely firm.”

In Lille, he said, three men aged 20 to 25 with no criminal record were each sentenced to 10 months in prison and imprisoned immediately for looting a video game store in the city’s old town.

The National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament, is launching an inquiry into the Oct. 17 violence and the authorities’ policing strategy, its speaker, Yaël Braun-Pivet, said, with findings expected “by the end of the year.”

Sylvie Corbet, in Paris, contributed to this report.