French Cabinet approves end to state of emergency
France’s Cabinet today approved the lifting of a state of emergency imposed during three weeks of rioting and arson across the country, a minister confirmed.
The order was to take effect tomorrow, ending the emergency measures more than six weeks earlier than originally planned.
Earlier today, before the Cabinet meeting, President Jacques Chirac confirmed that the state of emergency will be lifted.
“Considering the situation of these past several weeks, I decided to end it,” Chirac said in a New Year’s greeting to his ministers.
The president said the emergency measures had been precautionary and “strictly temporary”.
The state of emergency revived a law born out of France’s colonial era and allowed the use of curfews, night-and-day police searches inside homes and other measures.
However, only a few towns and regions imposed curfews for minors; Paris did not.
