PARIS, Oct 19 (Reuters) – The mayors of France’s biggest cities on Monday demanded answers from the government to what they called a lack of preparation by security forces as the country licked its wounds from a weekend of rioting and looting.
The protests followed weeks of student demonstrations with occasional bouts of street violence, rocking the country six months ahead of its next presidential election and increasing pressures over a weak economy and surging debt.
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French assets were underperforming broader European markets on Monday, though moves were more contained than at some other moments of recent political tension.
Fears of tensions inside Macron’s fragile government over apparent security shortcomings — coming just as the government needs to pass a much-needed budget bill to rein in its finances — could further unsettle investors.
President Emmanuel Macron’s office said on Monday he had turned down his Interior Minister Laurent Nunez’s offer to resign, telling him instead to put an end to barricades and looting and be transparent over what Macron called “intelligence and foresight failings”.
The mayors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon said in a joint op-ed published by the newspaper Liberation that they were used to demonstrations and protests.
“But on Saturday … for the first time, we had the feeling that whole sections of our cities had been left without protection,” the mayors — all from the centre-left — said. “We now need to patch the wounds of our cities and face up to the anger of our residents, aghast at this level of violence.”
The start of school holidays on Monday looked likely to hand the government some immediate relief, but students were staging more gatherings and blockades in some places, including the Louvre gallery and Sciences Po university in central Paris.
Marseille, one of the cities worst hit by the riots, put in place a ban on gatherings and demonstrations. French unions meanwhile called for a new round of national strikes and demonstrations on November 5.
INTELLIGENCE FAILURES
At the weekend, hundreds of thousands took to the streets to protest over what many say are declining and dysfunctional public services that leave citizens to fend for themselves amid cost-of-living pressures.
In many places including Paris, Marseille and Lyon, peaceful protests were quickly hijacked by rioters, leading to scenes of vandalism and chaos.
In Paris, at least 300 to 400 businesses were vandalised at the weekend, Dominique Restino, the head of the Paris chamber of commerce, told BFM television.
