Follow-Up: French Senate Passes 'Rioters Pay' Bill Allowing Damages to Be Deducted From Family and Housing Benefits

France's Senate approved a bill by 229 votes to 105 that would make rioters pay for the damage they cause, with compensation potentially deducted from the welfare benefits their families receive. The vote is the government's legislative response to the unrest less than two weeks earlier that caused an estimated more than 1 billion euros in damage across the country.

Under the bill, anyone who knowingly joins a group preparing violence could be ordered to pay up to 10,000 euros for what others destroy, and anyone who stays after two police dispersal orders would be liable for damage done afterwards. French law already generally holds parents responsible for damage caused by their children under 18. The bill adds that once a court ruling is final, the money could be deducted from family allowances and housing aid; senators extended it to the RSA minimum-income benefit, worth up to about 650 euros a month for a single person, and the back-to-school allowance, while protecting a minimum amount for living expenses.

Supporters say victims deserve compensation and taxpayers should not carry the cost. Communist Senator Fabien Gay cited monthly deductions of 57 euros from a household receiving RSA — at that rate, repaying 10,000 euros would take nearly 15 years. Human rights groups urged lawmakers to reject the bill, warning it could discourage peaceful protest and hurt families who depend on benefits; Amnesty International France's Nathalie Godard said seizing those payments could have disastrous consequences for the poorest. France Assureurs, the insurers' federation, says insurers paid 793 million euros on 16,400 claims after the 2023 riots.

The bill passed the conservative-led Senate with far-right backing and now goes to the National Assembly, where no bloc holds a majority. GSM previously reported that the October 17 cost-of-living protests spiralled into France's worst unrest in years, with nearly 2,400 people arrested in one weekend and thousands of shops looted or damaged. According to The Associated Press.

Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 图：法国参议院所在地 Paris 的卢森堡宫（资料图）。照片：JLPC，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The Luxembourg Palace in Paris, seat of the French Senate (file photo). Photo by JLPC, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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