French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said he has asked prefects to implement “a number of partial curfews” in certain “localised” urban areas to stop further disorder, which he attributes to “the extreme-left” and some criminal elements. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
He also says the government is determined to respond to the events as needed, and if declaring a state of emergency is deemed necessary, they would do so – but that’s a major decision to make and currently not being considered.
He says he believes “there is an agenda of chaos being pushed by the far-left,” with the intention of disrupting next year’s presidential election, and that’s why he urges the NR leaders to attend his briefing later today, despite their plans not to do so.
Lecornu also says that there will be a “strong” response from the country’s judiciary, cracking down on the violence and crime on the margins of the protests. Investigators are also looking through social media footage, where rioters often did not wear masks.
New measures to stop riots from reoccurring will be put in place starting tonight, but tomorrow’s football game between PSG and Barcelona is currently scheduled to still go ahead.
He also says that furlough measures for businesses affected by riots will kick in on Tuesday to ensure all jobs are saved despite any disruption to business operations in the build up to the busy Christmas period.
He says there will also be further targeted measures, but with little detail at this stage.
Separately, the government will also push to expedite various assessments required to pay out any insurance claims.
Lecornu also says that the right to legitimate protest needs to be safeguarded and considered separately from the riots and clashes with police forces.