France's interior minister promised today to boost security at protests after hooded youths ran amok at May Day demonstrations in Paris, torching cars and a McDonald's restaurant.
Police said 109 people were in custody after the violence, which has sparked criticism in the press that the government was unprepared for 1,200 black-clad troublemakers joining the traditional May 1 protests for workers' rights.
"The authority of the state, reduced to statements of 'strong condemnation', has been tarnished once again," read a column in the right-leaning Figaro newspaper.
Regional daily L'Est Republicain deplored "the sight of these 1,200 thugs dressed in black on the Austerlitz bridge", while the L'Alsace newspaper declared: "Governing means planning ahead."
"We cannot keep up, even with 21 police units mobilised against movements which all of a sudden appear on a scale we've never seen before."
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