"I am absolutely determined to restore order," French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Monday after a weekend of unrest that left shops shattered, police injured, and questions piling up. After a crisis meeting, Lecornu gave mayors the power to impose targeted curfews but stopped short of a Paris-wide lockdown or ruling out a state of emergency, Reuters reports. He accused far-left groups of wanting to cause "profound unrest in the country" ahead of next year's presidential election, a claim hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon challenged him to prove. He said that if Lecornu can't back up his claims, he should "apologize, shut up, and stop stoking disorder," the BBC reports.
More than 2,400 people were arrested over the weekend, one protester died, and nearly 1,000 officers were injured as cost-of-living protests morphed into looting that hit about 3,000 businesses, including high-end boutiques in central Paris. On Monday President Emmanuel Macron rejected his interior minister's offer to resign, telling him to instead end the looting and be transparent about "intelligence and foresight failings." On Sunday, Macron said those who "sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable."
Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said Monday that the crisis will not be resolved without a "political response," France24 reports. "We must work toward a more precise platform of demands to lay the groundwork for a way out of the crisis," he said, urging Lecornu to "take up this issue and begin negotiations with high school, student, and employee organisations." French unions have called for another round of strikes and rallies on Nov. 5, reports Reuters.
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