Paris, the nexr day after elections...

Riot police in Paris fired tear gas into crowds which gathered after Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential election victory.The disturbances happened at the Place de la Bastille, a popular hub for demonstrations and strikes.Thousands of police have been deployed in the capital and its suburbs.Railway stations were also under high surveillance in case gangs of youths travel to disrupt victory festivities.The trouble followed news that Sarkozy - a right-wing Conservative - is thought to have beaten socialist Segolene Royal by six points to replace Jacques Chirac.
Sarkozy - who in his victory speech vowed to represent all of France - said: "The French people have chosen change.They have decided to break with the ideas and habits of the past. I will rehabilitate work, authority, morality, respect, merit. I will restore honour to the nation and national identity - I will bring French pride back to the French people."

In a second speech to massed crowds, he said: "France has given me everything and the time has come for me to give back everything it has given." Sarkozy, who has promised 100 days of action when he takes control, added that America could "count on our friendship" but that it must take the lead on climate change. Initial exit polls revealed the reform-minded victor won 53% of the vote. Although unofficial, the exit polls are usually accurate.

After learning that Sarkozy had won with 53 percent of the vote, some protesters clashed with police, throwing rocks and bottles. Monday morning, 5,000 people gathered at Paris' Place de Bastille and about 300 attacked police, who dispersed the crowd with water cannon and tear gas, Deutsche Welle reported.

Protests were reported in several cities and suburbs, including Argenteuil, northwest of Paris, where rioters set fire to a parked bus and three other vehicles.

Argenteuil was one of the sites of 2005 youth rioting that occurred after then-Interior Minister Sarkozy called young residents of projects as "rabble and "scum."

More than 1,000 people protested in Nantes and two officers were slightly injured by thrown acid, police said. Two-thousand people protested and several police officers were injured in Bordeaux, Deutsche Welle said.

This is the new France...

Irina