The Rugby World Cup kicks off in just under ten weeks with hosts France playing New Zealand in the Stade de France. The national stadium sits squarely in Seine-Saint-Denis, a district which yesterday was smouldering after a night of anarchy. Shops were looted, cars torched and a bus station destroyed in an orgy of violence that was replicated across the republic.
President Macron cut short a trip to Brussels for a crisis meeting with ministers and security chiefs in Paris on Friday morning, and he reportedly said there will be ‘no taboos’ in doing what is necessary to restore law and order. Further details will be forthcoming but there is no indication at this stage that a state of emergency will be declared, as many on the right have demanded.
What happens if France is still in the grip of what some are already calling an ‘insurrection’?
Aside from Paris, some of the most chaotic scenes last night were in the big cities: Marseille, Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon and Toulouse.
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