What the draft law covers

The government's draft bill, brought forward in response to the October 17 riots, would make protesters liable to pay up to €10,000 for damage caused during public demonstrations - even if they were not responsible for it. It passed through the Senate, where the right holds the majority, on Wednesday, and will now be debated in the more divided National Assembly.

The bill reaches further than individual culprits:

• •It targets not only people guilty of theft or property destruction, but anyone who knowingly took part in a group formed expressly to carry out acts of vandalism.
• •It also applies to people who remained in public gatherings after being ordered twice by police to disperse.
• •It includes provisions allowing social benefits to be seized to cover damage costs, covering low-income assistance, housing assistance and the minimum income.

A lawyer's objection: the punishment already exists

Laurent Caruso, a criminal defence lawyer and member of the National Bar Council's Liberties and Human Rights Commission, argued the bill adds nothing the justice system cannot already do. When an offender causes damage, courts can already order repayment, he said: "So this mechanism already exists – when you're responsible for something, you pay".

In his view, the draft law's real effect is to widen the net because the actual perpetrators are hard to identify - so others are made to pay in their place. He warned that its broad wording opens the door to arbitrary enforcement and discriminatory policing: "So there's a risk that this will be arbitrary, and this is what's murky about the law – and that's dangerous".

Caruso described the measure as an attack on the freedom to demonstrate, aimed at discouraging people from joining marches. "This is a freedom-destroying law that infringes upon civil liberties, because it is a direct assault on the freedom to demonstrate," he said.

Seizing benefits that the law protects

The social benefits seizure provisions drew some of his sharpest criticism. Under French law, benefits of this kind have long been protected and cannot be touched to repay debts of this sort, Caruso said - seizing them is "completely out of keeping with the law".

He also noted the practical problem: many people convicted of property destruction have no money to take. "It's difficult to take money from someone who doesn't have any – and in that situation, there aren't many options," he said, pointing instead to possibilities such as unpaid community service or pursuing the debt through the legal system until the person is able to pay.

The arithmetic of repayment was laid out in the Senate by Communist Party senator Fabien Gay. Deducting €57 every month from a family receiving the minimum income, as proposed, would take 14 years to reach the €10,000 threshold, he said. Under the far-right National Rally's proposed €30,000 threshold, it would take families 44 years.

National Rally senator Edwige Diaz saw no problem with that timescale. "We'll give them the chance to pay it back over the rest of their lives," she said.

The wider opposition

The bill has drawn condemnation well beyond the bar:

• •Amnesty International warned the law would be "a deeply regressive step" for France.
• •The General Confederation of Labour and the French Democratic Confederation of Labour on Thursday condemned the draft bill as a profound threat to the fundamental right to non-violent protest.
• •Caruso stressed that lawyers opposing the bill are not seeking impunity for vandals: "As lawyers, we are not in favour of leniency or impunity" - but punishment must respect basic legal principles and civil liberties.

The bill is the government's answer to riots and looting that broke out on October 17 on the fringes of nationwide peaceful demonstrations against the rising cost of living. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry said almost 2,500 businesses were damaged over the weekend, with more than a thousand of those ransacked, looted or set on fire, and the IFRAP Foundation estimated the nationwide costs at not far short of a billion euros.

Having passed the right-wing-dominated Senate on Wednesday, the bill now goes to the more divided National Assembly, where its fate will be debated.