FRANCE: Saturday night was the tenth and worst night of rioting so far, reaching 200 French towns and cities. There was no reason to think that last night would be any better. About 1,295 cars were torched across the country, and 312 men were arrested, writes Lara Marlowe in Paris
Under intense pressure to break his silence, President Jacques Chirac finally spoke to the nation in a brief unscripted speech from the steps of the Élysée last night. Since the violence started on October 27th, his only previous comments were relayed to journalists by the government spokesman last Wednesday.
"Today, the absolute priority is to re-establish security and public order," a haggard Mr Chirac said following a crisis meeting with his prime minister and ministers of the interior, defence, justice, finance, social affairs and education.
"The republic is completely determined . . . to be stronger than those who want to sow violence and fear and they will be apprehended, judged and punished," Mr Chirac warned.
He said that although the government would work for justice and equal opportunity, "there is a precondition . . . I repeat it: the re-establishment of security and public order".
The worst violence on Saturday night took place in Evreux, Normandy. At about 9pm, firemen went to extinguish 50 burning cars. Dozens of youths came out of the Madeleine housing complex and attacked them with spades and baseball bats, injuring 16 firemen and policemen in a three-hour battle. "It was war," a stunned fireman told French television.
The TF1 TV network reported that the Madeleine was "still in the hands of troublemakers" yesterday. It was nonetheless able to film gutted boutiques, a pharmacy, a hair salon and police station.
Local women sobbed among the blackened ruins. "Stop. Stop. Do something else, but not violence," one cried.
Jean-Louis Debré, speaker of the National Assembly and the mayor of Evreux, said the majority of his town wanted peace. "The 100 people who sowed this destruction are not part of our world," he added.
From Quimper in the northwest to Lille in the north, Strasbourg at France's eastern border, Nice and Montpelier in the south, Bordeaux on the west coast and Toulouse, 200 towns and cities have been the scene of rioting. About 30 cars were burned in two areas of Paris.
Police are increasingly using helicopters to film rioters, and to light up areas under attack.
The violence continued yesterday afternoon, when a bus was burned in St Etienne. Other daytime incidents occurred in Nantes, Rennes and Orléans.
The right and extreme right are calling for the army to be deployed. Socialists, communists and greens have asked for the resignation of the interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy - the only clear demand of rioters.
The comparison to the month-long worker and student riots of May 1968 was implicit in a call yesterday by eight mayors for a "Grenelle for poor neighbourhoods". The Grenelle accords ended the 1968 unrest with a 35 per cent rise in the minimum wage. Like Charles de Gaulle in 1968, Mr Chirac is living out his final period in office while a younger rival, Mr Sarkozy, has stolen the support of his party.
At least ten policemen were injured by stones thrown by rioters on Saturday night. At Les Mureaux, south-west of Paris, youths threw supermarket trolleys and bicycle wheels from the roof of a high-rise onto police.
A Korean journalist was injured when she was attacked at Aubervilliers. On Friday night, two white men were attacked when they tried to stop rioters burning rubbish bins outside their building in Stains, north of Paris. One is in a coma and may not survive. A white family living in the mainly black and Arab suburbs told TF1 they were moving out for their own safety.