French election followed by violence, vandalism

PARIS – The leader of France’s defeated Socialists appealed for calm Tuesday after post-election violence left cars burned and store windows smashed.\nWhile the unrest has been relatively minor, it sent a message to Nicolas Sarkozy: He may have won the presidency, but he hasn’t won over the many French who consider him, his free-market reforms and tough line on crime and immigration frighteningly brutal.\nSarkozy, who beat Socialist Segolene Royal in a runoff Sunday, is a divisive figure whose tough language and crackdowns on crime and immigration have angered many on the left and in the immigrant-heavy suburban housing projects that erupted in riots in 2005.\nTuesday night, the third night after the election, appeared calmer than the previous nights, with only a few reports of violence. Vandals set fire to a center belonging to Sarkozy’s UMP party in the central town of Villeurbanne, causing minor damage, said local official Xavier de Furst.\nA scuffle with riot police was also reported in the Paris suburb of Grigny. Police patrolled the Place de la Bastille in Paris, where hundreds of people had gathered on previous nights, breaking windows in shops and starting street fires.\nSome 730 cars were burned nationwide Sunday night and 592 people were arrested. The following night, 373 vehicles were torched and 160 people were taken in for questioning across France, police said.\n“To all those who can hear me, I ask them to immediately stop all this behavior,” Socialist Party chief Francois Hollande said Tuesday on RTL radio.\n“We are in a republic, where universal suffrage is the only law we know. There can be disappointment, there can be anger, there can be frustration. But the only way to react is to take up your ballots, not other weapons,” he said.\nRoyal had warned of renewed violence in case of a Sarkozy victory, and had sought to make the campaign a referendum on Sarkozy’s polarizing persona.\nBut voters favored Sarkozy anyway, handing him a mandate for reforms that includes tax cuts and new labor rules making it easier to hire and fire to revive the sluggish economy. He faces a big challenge in carrying out his plans in a country that cherishes its generous social safety net.\nThe troublemakers this week have been mostly white, whereas the 2005 riots involved many black and Arab youth angry over discrimination and alienation from mainstream society. This week’s protesters resembled some of the young people who helped bring down a minor labor reform last year through mass demonstrations.\nSarkozy’s reforms promise to be tougher, and are certain to meet similar street protests.\nSarkozy himself was on a yacht in the Mediterranean, taking time to rest before he takes over from Jacques Chirac on May 16.\nCritics on the left assailed him for his high-budget retreat – the yacht belongs to prominent magnate Vincent Bollore and was outfitted with huge plasma TVs and a whirlpool bath.\nHollande was more understanding, though he said he wanted to know who paid for the vacation. “I find it normal that after a campaign that was also difficult for him, he needs rest,” he said.\nThe Socialists and Sarkozy’s UMP party are now looking ahead to parliamentary elections June 10 and 17. The UMP needs a majority to keep his mandate for reforms. A win by the left would bring “cohabitation,” an awkward power-sharing with a leftist prime minister, which would put a stop to his plans.