France is returning to an "almost normal situation" with arson attacks diminishing around the country after nearly three weeks of unrest, police said today - hours before a Senate vote on extending a state of emergency.
Despite the decline in violence, France's upper house of parliament was expected to sign off on the government's request for a three-month extension of a state of emergency first declared November 9th.
The extension until mid-February already passed 346 votes to 148 in the National Assembly, or lower house, yesterday.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told the Senate that tensions in troubled neighbourhoods justified continued state-of-emergency powers.
The number of towns still affected by unrest dropped to 79 overnight, down from 102 the previous night and more than 300 at the peak of the unrest, he said. "Seventy nine is naturally too many," Mr Sarkozy added.
"The future cannot be built on violence." The state of emergency, first put in place for a 12-day period, gives regional authorities extra powers the government says are still needed to end the country's worst civil unrest in four decades.
But the leftist opposition says emergency powers are no longer needed. Socialist senators planned to vote against the extension, as their National Assembly colleagues did yesterday.
Criticism has also mounted among others concerned that France is compromising its values and risked further enflaming passions. Dozens of associations that fear the measures treat residents of poor suburbs like "internal enemies" planned a protest this evening.
They called instead for a "social state of emergency" that gives a voice to immigrants and their French offspring who often live in suburban housing projects. A scathing commentary in the left-leaning daily Liberation today said the state of emergency was no remedy for the social injustices, unemployment and discrimination making suburban youths angry.
"Its extension is useless and could prove dangerous ...," the paper editorialised. "The gravest threat is that of the subtle erosion of the fundamental principles of the Republic."
Mr Sarkozy, as he did a day earlier in the National Assembly, said the emergency powers would be used responsibly and only where needed. They allow for curfews, day and night house searches and other police actions. Other tough measures taken by the government include plans to deport foreigners implicated in the unrest. Rioters have also been given speedy trials.
Mr Sarkozy told the Senate that 75-80 per cent of the nearly 3,000 people arrested were already known to police.