{"id":4756,"date":"2026-10-20T10:23:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T10:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/?p=4756"},"modified":"2026-10-20T10:23:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T10:23:29","slug":"france-imposes-overnight-curfews-after-cost-of-living-protests-turn-violent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/20\/france-imposes-overnight-curfews-after-cost-of-living-protests-turn-violent\/politics\/international\/","title":{"rendered":"France imposes overnight curfews after cost-of-living protests turn violent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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French authorities have imposed overnight curfews in Paris and several other cities after days of protests over the cost of living escalated into widespread rioting, looting and clashes with police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister S\u00e9bastien Lecornu said the restrictions had helped restore calm overnight, while warning that further curfews could be introduced where necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTargeted curfews have contributed to the calm of this night,\u201d Lecornu wrote on X on Tuesday, thanking police officers, gendarmes and local officials for enforcing the measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said decisions on further restrictions would be made locally by prefects in coordination with mayors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The curfews took effect on Monday night in cities including Paris, Bordeaux, Nice and Lyon, following a weekend of unrest that damaged businesses and public buildings. Demonstrators have also accused police of using excessive force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interior Minister Laurent Nu\u00f1ez said on Monday that 2,513 people had been taken into custody during the protests, with 67 imprisoned. He added that dozens of judicial investigations remained underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 60,000 police officers and other security personnel had been deployed nationwide, Nu\u00f1ez said. However, he acknowledged that authorities had struggled to contain the unrest in major cities, including Paris, Marseille and Lyon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou couldn\u2019t look shopkeepers in the eye after hundreds of shops had been looted and say we hadn\u2019t lost control,\u201d he told French radio, blaming the violence on rioters, looters and what he described as ultra-left militants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most serious incidents occurred in Limoges, central France, where a historic town hall was set on fire on Saturday during the demonstrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Minister G\u00e9rald Darmanin said the national anti-terrorism prosecutor\u2019s office was assessing whether to take over the investigation into the blaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fire at Limoges town hall affects us just as much as that of Notre-Dame,\u201d Darmanin wrote on X, referring to the 2019 fire that severely damaged Paris\u2019s Notre-Dame Cathedral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The demonstrations began in September as a student-led campaign for education reforms but have since broadened into a movement demanding action over rising living costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unrest comes months before France\u2019s presidential election in April 2027, which will mark the end of President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The protests are part of wider discontent over living costs across Europe. Demonstrations over education, housing and economic pressures were also reported over the weekend in Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Albania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni accused people she described as criminals of exploiting demonstrations to provoke confrontations and create disorder after clashes between protesters and police in Milan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some luxury shops in the city\u2019s historic centre reportedly closed early on Monday and boarded up their entrances amid fears of further unrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Lisbon, protesters established a tent camp in Rossio Square to demand government action on rising rents and property prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portuguese Prime Minister Lu\u00eds Montenegro acknowledged the concerns behind the demonstrations but warned against importing instability into Portugal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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French authorities have imposed overnight curfews in Paris and several other cities after days of protests over the cost of living escalated into widespread rioting, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,53,41,36,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current_affairs","category-featured-stories","category-hot_topics","category-international","category-top_stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4761,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4756\/revisions\/4761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedawnrwanda.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}