Reuters leads off a story titled “Police hurt in French election violence” with this:

Hundreds of people were arrested in France overnight in clashes between police and protesters angry over conservative Nicolas Sarkozy’s victory in Sunday’s presidential election, police said.Official figures released on Monday said demonstrators set fire to 730 cars and injured 78 policemen across France, with 592 people arrested in the violent protests against the tough-talking former interior minister. The tally was revised sharply upwards after an initial report appeared to downplay the clashes and was at odds with local police figures and eyewitness reports, which suggested widespread troubles in numerous French cities.

This sounds pretty bad until the second to last paragraph of the story:

It added that the level of violence was above that usually seen on July 14 Bastille Day, France’s national holiday, “but below that of New Year’s celebrations.”

So much for Royal’s predicted mayhem. Anti-Sarkozy riots can’t even reach those of a New Year’s celebration!