France commerce chamber chief urges shop closures ahead of Saturday protests

France's chambers of commerce and industry network chief has urged merchants to close their shops during Saturday's protests and leave riot handling to the police.

De Crescenzo said the chamber network counted 2,241 shops vandalized during last Saturday's demonstrations.
He urged merchants near protest routes to close their shops Saturday and leave handling of rioters to the police.
De Crescenzo estimated losses from the vandalism at hundreds of millions of euros.
Political researcher Kadar Beri said the protests began as student movements against education funding cuts.