France to decide on extending emergency laws
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-14 09:32

The French government will consider on Monday whether to extend emergency measures aimed at ending the worst rioting in nearly 40 years by youths protesting about a lack of jobs and opportunities.

Civil unrest began in suburbs around major towns and cities more than two weeks ago but has lessened considerably since November 8 when Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin imposed measures including curfews for 12 days.

Villepin's cabinet was due to meet on Monday to consider whether to draft a law to extend those measures.

Rioters who include white youths as well as youngsters of Arab and African origin torched 1,400 cars across France last Sunday but violence has dropped since that peak with 374 cars burned on Saturday night, down a fifth from the night before.

Police said 10 youths were arrested in the southwestern city of Toulouse after youths burned 10 vehicles on Sunday and damaged a school, driving a burning car against its gates.

Police were not available later for an indication of the overall level of violence on Sunday.

The violence in Toulouse was the 18th consecutive night of unrest triggered by the accidental electrocution death in the Paris suburbs of two teenagers who apparently believed police were chasing them.

RIOTS

The disturbances are the worst in France since student riots in 1968 and have shaken the government of President Jacques Chirac, sparked a debate on the integration of immigrants and caused ripples throughout Europe.

In a bid to help tackle problems in French suburbs, the European Union has offered France 50 million euros, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Sunday in a radio interview.

The main problem behind the unrest was youth unemployment but the challenge of integrating immigrants was shared by many European cities, he told France's Europe 1.

"The best social politics is to create employment. That is the main thing. When you have 60 percent of youths unemployed in suburbs it is a problem," Barroso said.

An editorial in Monday's Midi-Libre newspaper said the riots had hurt France's image abroad.

"Even if the violence isn't racial in origin the crisis in the suburbs brings the failure of France's social model ... to the fore and has highlighted the country's social sickness," it said in a signed editorial.

The opposition Socialists accused Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday of acting tough to increase his chances of becoming president in a 2007 election. Sarkozy has said he would throw out foreigners caught rioting.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the right-wing National Front party, called the unrest on Sunday a "a social atomic bomb" caused by immigration and said the rioters were "Chirac's children."