Nicolas Sarkozy’s election as French head of state set off a fresh wave of protests yesterday, fuelling concern that his presidency could face prolonged violent opposition.

After 592 demonstrators had been arrested and 78 police officers injured in clashes on Sunday night, students took to the streets again in Paris and other cities.

About 300 Parisian protesters blocked traffic and shouted slogans against the French President-elect in the Place de la Bastille, where council staff were clearing away debris from the previous night’s uprising.

Protesters also marched through the centre of Lyons, in central France, and held sit-ins in front of several lycées.

Their anger pointed to the tinderbox the centre-right leader faces as he seeks to implement a reform programme mooted and then ditched by President Chirac for fear of igniting a social explosion.

Although Mr Sarkozy has a clear mandate for change after his victory over Ségolène Royal, his Socialist rival, he is likely to have to confront hard-line public sector unions that are already planning a wave of strikes. Among the policies put forward by Mr Sarkozy in an attempt to energise the sluggish French economy are an overhaul of public sector pensions and the introduction of secret ballots on strike action.

The measures are seen as red rags by the unions, which will be hoping for a repeat of 1995, when Mr Chirac followed his election with a swath of unpopular policies. After a nation-wide strike movement brought France to a virtual standstill, a chastened Mr Chirac backed down and trod with extreme caution for the rest of his 12 years in office.

Mr Sarkozy says that he is made of sterner stuff and will stand up to la rue – the street protests.

Police said that a total of 730 cars were burnt across the country after the announcement of Mr Sarkozy’s triumph.

The worst violence erupted in the Place de la Bastille, where about 300 rioters fought running battles with police, who responded by sending clouds of teargas into the crowd. A police spokesman said that 35 cars were set alight in Paris and 88 in its suburbs.

The violence spread to other cities, such as Nantes in western France, where 1,000 people gathered to demonstrate, and a few dozen threw bottles, stones and acid at the police.

In Toulouse, in the south west, 50 cars, two schools and a public meeting room were destroyed by fire. In Marseilles, on the southern coast, police used CS gas to disperse several hundred youths. And in the usually calm southwestern city of Bordeaux 18 people were arrested as clashes marred an initially peaceful protest.

Officials said they were relieved to have avoided a repeat of the full-scale riots that rocked French suburban council estates in 2005.

Last week Ms Royal said that victory for the centre-right candidate – a controversial figure reviled by large sections of French society – could spiral into urban warfare.

However, Claude Guéant, who headed Mr Sarkozy’s campaign team, said: “There was a lot less violence than some people feared or hoped for.” He said that the clashes were sparked by left-wing militants, not by youths from the suburban population, the majority of whom have immigrant roots.

“The people from the suburbs want to earn a living, live happily and in security and raise their children with dignity,” he said.

A senior officer from the Paris police prefecture told The Timesthat Sunday’s violence in the Place de la Bastille was comparable with the protests last year against proposed la-bour reforms.

“I guess you don’t get this sort of thing in Britain,” he said, “but in France it’s part of life.”

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