Vive la Revolution!

Excerpt from the NY Times:

After a series of mostly ineffectual pledges by French leaders to restore order and crack down on lawbreakers, the government resorted to a 50-year-old law, dating from the Algerian war, which authorizes local officials to enforce nighttime curfews for up to 12 days, starting at midnight tonight.

"The republic faces a moment of truth," Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said in announcing the decree during a grim-faced address in Parliament. "A return to order is the absolute priority."

President Jacques Chirac, who called an emergency cabinet meeting to adopt the curfew decree, said nothing publicly today, continuing to keep a low profile amid the worst unrest here in a generation. That lack of public visibility by Mr. Chirac, who suffered what was thought to be a mild stroke in September, has contributed, critics say, to an atmosphere of political drift during a time of crisis.

The chaos, and reports of isolated unrest in Belgium and Germany, have even rattled the euro, Europe's common currency, helping drive it today to its lowest level against the dollar in two years.

Editorial by me: Didn't old Louis hide from the peasants when thwey started rioting? Smell those Freedom Fries burn!

Powered by: