France to decide on extending emergency laws

By Matthew Bigg

PARIS (Reuters) – 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.”