France imposes a curfew in 4 cities after the protests escalate

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The French authorities announced the imposition of a partial curfew in 4 cities in the north of the country, including Lille, on Monday and Tuesday nights, in an attempt to contain the violence that occurred in several cities during the weekend protests.

The office of French Prime Minister Sebastien Le Cornu stated that the curfew will be implemented from eight in the evening until six in the morning local time, with the aim of reducing disturbances and protecting property, according to Agence France-Presse.

Lecorno had announced that he had asked the governors of the relevant regions to impose a curfew on Monday evening, explaining that the measure would be partial and limited in scope, with a focus on protecting stores, following the scenes of chaos witnessed in French cities.

Locorno also did not rule out declaring a state of emergency if necessary, but he considered that imposing a curfew seems to be the most appropriate option at the current stage.

During the weekend, France witnessed an escalation in protests and acts of violence, which spread to a number of cities, while Paris witnessed protest movements that included closing the entrance to the Louvre Museum, with the participation of protesters, including students from the Louvre School, expressing their support for the movement of high school students and denouncing what they described as police repression.

These developments came in the context of protests that have been ongoing for four weeks, and began with demands from high school students to improve conditions in their schools, before expanding to include objection to the sharp rise in the cost of living.

For his part, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez acknowledged, on Monday, that the police “lost control” in some cities during the violence that broke out on the sidelines of the protests at the weekend, explaining that about 60,000 police and gendarmerie members were deployed across the country on Saturday, as part of the security response to the unrest.