France extends emergency powers, despite easing unrest

The French parliament gave its final approval to extending a state of emergency, even as the country was returning to an “almost normal situation” after three weeks of rioting and unrest.

The French parliament gave its final approval to extending a state of emergency, even as the country was returning to an “almost normal situation” after three weeks of rioting and unrest.

Despite the decline in violence, France’s upper house, the senate, agreed to the government’s request for a three-month extension of a state of emergency first declared on November 9.

It approved the measure by a vote of 202-125, which allows the measure to take effect at midnight on Monday.

Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy told parliament that tensions in troubled neighbourhoods justified continued state-of-emergency powers.

The number of towns still affected by unrest dropped to 79 overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, down from 102 the previous night and more than 300 at the peak of the unrest, he said.

“Seventy-nine is naturally too many,” Sarkozy added. “The future cannot be built on violence.”

The state of emergency, first put in place for a 12-day period, gives regional authorities extra powers which the government says are still needed to end the country’s worst civil unrest in four decades.

But the left-wing opposition says emergency powers are no longer needed. Socialist senators planned to vote against the extension, as their National Assembly colleagues did on Tuesday.

Criticism has also mounted among others concerned that France is compromising its values and risking further enflaming passions. Dozens of associations that fear the measures treat residents of poor suburbs like “internal enemies” planned a protest yesterday.

They called instead for a “social state of emergency” that gives a voice to immigrants and their French offspring, who often live in suburban housing projects.

A scathing commentary today in the left-leaning daily Liberation said the state of emergency was no remedy for the social injustices, unemployment and discrimination making suburban youths angry.

The paper said: “Its extension is useless and could prove dangerous … The gravest threat is that of the subtle erosion of the fundamental principles of the Republic.”

Sarkozy, as he did a day earlier in the National Assembly, said the emergency powers would be used responsibly and only where needed.

They allow for curfews, day and night house searches and other police actions. Other tough measures taken by the government include plans to deport foreigners implicated in the unrest.

Rioters have also been given speedy trials.

Sarkozy told the Senate that 75 to 80% of the nearly 3,000 people arrested were already known to police.

National police said hooligans set fire to 163 vehicles overnight, Tuesday to Wednesday, down from 215 the previous night – a continuing drop. Most violence was in the provinces, with only 27 vehicles torched in the Paris region, compared with 60 a night earlier.

A total of 8,973 vehicles have been set ablaze since the violence began October 27. At the height of the unrest, youths burned 1,408 vehicles across France in one night – November 6 – and shots were fired at police.

Some 10,600 police remain deployed to counter the violence, which included an arson attack early today on the Saint-Jean-d’Ars Roman Catholic Church in Romans-sur-Isere, south-east France.

Several mosques have also been hit by vandals since the unrest took root.

The crisis has led to collective soul-searching about France’s failure to integrate its African and Muslim minorities. Anger about high unemployment and discrimination has fanned frustration among the French-born children of immigrants.

The unrest was set off by the accidental electrocution of two teenagers as they hid from police in a power substation in the north-east Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois.

more courts articles

Man (25) in court charged with murdering his father and attempted murder of mother Man (25) in court charged with murdering his father and attempted murder of mother
Man appears in court charged with false imprisonment of woman in van Man appears in court charged with false imprisonment of woman in van
Man in court over alleged false imprisonment of woman Man in court over alleged false imprisonment of woman

More in this section

Russia arrests another suspect in concert hall attack that killed 143 Russia arrests another suspect in concert hall attack that killed 143
Andrew Flintoff File Photos Andrew Flintoff’s BBC return confirmed following Top Gear crash
Glastonbury Festival 2007 - Worthy Farm - Pilton, Somerset Song lyrics have become angrier since the 80s, study shows
Cookie Policy Privacy Policy Brand Safety FAQ Help Contact Us Terms and Conditions

© Examiner Echo Group Limited