—New conservative president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, elected yesterday
Yesterday I blogged about this, the conservative’s victory in France and concluded my brief remarks by saying: Now, let’s watch for the mass riots and mayhem in the streets of France courtesy of the French, um, “youth (wink!)”.
Overnight, the news photos started rolling in, but the story was nonetheleess largely buried by the media.
Associated Press
Reuters
Agence France Press
Reuters
Sarkozy’s election victory marred by riots
Street violence took some of the shine off victory in the French elections for new president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Far-left activists had running battles with police across France as 270 people were taken in for questioning and 367 parked vehicles were torched.Riot police fired tear gas into a crowd gathered at the Place de la Bastille in Paris as news of Sarkozy’s victory came through.
Small bands of youths hurled stones and other objects at police and bared their backsides at riot officers.
Other fights with the police broke out in Toulouse, Lyon, Rennes and Nantes.
Two police unions said firebombs targeted schools and recreation centres in several towns in the Essonne region just south of Paris.
BFM TV described rioters as “militant anarchists” apparently upset by the victory of a man of the right.
There had been fears that the impoverished suburban housing projects, home to Arab and African immigrants and their French-born children, would erupt again at the victory of a man who labeled those responsible for rioting in 2005 as “scum.”
That abrasive style raised doubts over whether Sarkozy, himself the son of a Hungarian refugee, could unite a politically polarized, increasingly diverse nation.
He is widely unpopular among youths from the projects who showed their preference for Sarkozy’s Socialist rival, Segolene Royal, in the first-round vote earlier in the month.
Skirmishes flare after Sarkozy win
PARIS, France (Reuters)—Youths clashed with police in Paris and Lyon on Sunday, and security forces fired tear gas at 2,000 protesters in the French capital after conservative leader Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president.
Reuters reporters saw masked youths throwing bottles, stones and other objects at police who responded with repeated rounds of tear gas and at least one burst of water cannon in Paris’s Bastille Square, which is associated with leftist protests.
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