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France curfew: press in France and Italy split over response to weekend rioting
Curfews announced by President Emmanuel Macron's government after weekend rioting overshadowed cost-of-living protests have split the French press, while Italy weighs sending 500 army troops to Milan after violent demonstrations of its own. Newspapers in both countries disagree on whether the response is repression or too little too late.
By Haut Monde Post
• October 20, 2026
• 3 Min Read
Left and centrist papers on order and repression
The france curfew measures announced by the government after weekend rioting in france dominated a french press review that found little agreement on what the violence means.
Embattled Interior Minister Laurent Nunez featured on the front of the left-wing daily Libération, which headlined disapprovingly "Nunez dans la nasse" - a reference to the restrictive perimeter imposed on protesters, who cannot come and go as they please. The paper's editorial said the weekend's events announced the end of 10 years of Macron's governance, and lamented that maintaining law and order has become a "complicated thing for the president".
The Communist daily L'Humanité went further, accusing the government of creating an "impasse of repression" and arguing that a decade of baton policy has widened the gap between the French people and ruling powers.
La Croix, a centrist paper, took a longer view. It said maintaining order is being put to the test, and described French policing since May 1968 as a doctrine of "zero deaths" under which police must always stay at a distance.
With protesters promising new action this coming weekend, how can France maintain a balance between dissuasion and professional retaliation?
That question, posed by La Croix, frames the week ahead.
Too little? Le Figaro's state of emergency question
On the right, Le Figaro pressed from the opposite direction: why hasn't France declared a state of emergency and outlawed protests in the near future? The paper also asked what happened to a bill making rioters financially liable for damage to public property, and accused the government of not doing enough.
What the foreign press saw in the student protests
The British daily Metro called the curfew a "French correction" and quoted Macron as saying that France will not tolerate thieves or "extreme-left" thugs.
In Germany, a Frankfurter Allgemeine writer argued that the hallmark of the high school protests was the "unusual solidarity" between students from impoverished suburban schools and schools in affluent neighbourhoods. The same writer blamed Macron's government for waiting until the autumn school holidays and ignoring students' legitimate demands, concluding that France cannot afford the necessary investments in the education of future generations as long as a majority of voters cling to early retirement and short working hours.
A New York Times opinion piece sympathised with the French students, saying they are "showing the rest of the world that the only way to march into a dark future is together", while warning that their challenge is keeping violence at bay.
Italy's weekend and Milan's troop plan
The italy protests followed the same pattern. Over the weekend, demonstrators clashed with police, looted shops and vandalised property in Turin, Bologna and Milan during cost-of-living demonstrations.
The Italian government will dispatch 500 army troops to defend Milan under security measures to be approved at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
- •The Communist daily Il Manifesto's front page said "Try to catch them", disapproving of the government's measures and citing dozens of arrests, ethnically targeted roundups and authorisation of indiscriminate detention.
- •Il Riformista evoked Italy's Russian October - presumably a reference to the 1917 Bolshevik uprising.
- •The conservative Il Tempo evoked an "intifada" on Italian streets.
Protesters in France have promised new action next weekend, and Italy's cabinet is to approve the Milan security measures on Tuesday.
