France: Extended powers

The emergency laws also need the approval of the Senate, which votes on the issue on Wednesday.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy had told deputies France was facing one of its “sharpest and most complex urban crises”, which required “firmness”.

The state of emergency laws, allowing local authorities to impose curfews, conduct house-to-house searches and ban public gatherings, date from the Algerian war of independence in the 1950s.