President François Hollande declared the national emergency immediately after the Nov. 13 attacks. It allows police to break down doors and search houses without a warrant, break up assemblies and meetings, and impose curfews. The order also clears the way for military troops to be deployed to French streets. Since then, French security teams have aggressively raided apartments and houses to round up suspects and weaponry.
French authorities haven’t imposed a nationwide state of emergency since 1961, in the depths of the Algerian War, and the measure approved Friday expands an emergency law that was first drafted to empower Paris to put down the Algerian uprising. With the reform in hand, Hollande will spend the next three months with enormous executive power at his disposal.”