France’s Senate has voted 229 to 105 for a bill that would make people involved in violent protests pay for the damage, including by deducting money from family benefits and housing aid. The measure, passed this week after the country’s worst unrest in years, now goes to the National Assembly, where no bloc holds a majority and the debate is expected to be sharper.
The bill responds to unrest that followed cost of living protests in mid October, when police arrested nearly 2,400 people in one weekend, thousands of shops were looted or damaged, and estimated damage passed 1 billion euros. In one widely reported case, fire gutted the 19th century city hall in Limoges. Supporters say the state should not carry the whole cost of repairs when crowds turn violent. Critics say the bill punishes people for damage they did not personally cause.
Under the Senate text, anyone who knowingly joins a group preparing violence could be made to pay up to 10,000 euros for what others destroy, as could anyone who knowingly stays after police order a violent crowd to disperse, for damage done afterwards. Once a court ruling is final, the money could be deducted from family allowances and housing aid, and senators added the RSA minimum income benefit, worth up to about 650 euros a month for a single person, and the back to school allowance.
Why critics say the sums do not add up
Opponents point to a Senate report finding that offenders often have little money, or income the law protects from seizure. Communist Senator Fabien Gay cited monthly deductions of 57 euros from a household receiving RSA, a rate at which repaying 10,000 euros would take nearly 15 years. Trade unions and student groups warned in a newspaper opinion piece of a serious infringement on the freedom to demonstrate, and Amnesty International urged the government to abandon the bill.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez has defended the idea of joint liability, arguing that urgency is required after the scenes of chaos on October 17. The far right backed the bill in the conservative led Senate, and Marine Le Pen, who leads polls for next spring’s presidential election, supports the approach. The government has also proposed protest bans aimed at the most violent individuals, and the Senate approved a separate measure allowing rapid removal of social media content calling for disorder.
A wider European turn
France is not alone in looking beyond the rioters themselves. Across Western Europe, governments are reaching toward parents, and toward the apps that carry calls to the streets, according to weekend reporting. A Spanish fact checker found calls for Halloween protests in 46 cities in at least nine European countries, and Telegram closed a Barcelona group promoting Halloween looting, only for a replacement group to draw more than 2,000 members, according to Spanish media reports.
For France, the next test is political rather than financial. The National Assembly must decide whether joint liability and benefit deductions survive, and in what form, while student leaders have called for renewed school blockades on Tuesday and Thursday. The Senate has set the terms of the argument. Parliament as a whole will now decide whether paying for a riot becomes law.
