Nearly 2,400 people were arrested on Sunday as cost-of-living protests across France triggered clashes, looting and arson that the interior ministry said left almost 1,000 police and gendarmes injured, seven of them seriously.
AFP journalists reported police firing tear gas and stun grenades on Sunday at hundreds of people gathered in a Paris square after social media calls for a gathering authorities said had not been approved. Bottles and rocks were hurled at officers, and shops were looted around Republique square, where specialist anti-riot police were deployed for a second day. Violence also erupted in Lyon, where police stopped youths trying to smash the windows of a luxury clothing store and a tourist office was set ablaze, and in Limoges, whose 19th-century town hall was destroyed by a fire the local prefect, Maurice Barate, said had been deliberately set by “a wild horde”. In Saint-Etienne, a 17-year-old boy had his right hand blown off by a crowd-control grenade, and in Mulhouse a 17-year-old girl lost an eye, according to prosecutors.
In his address, Macron condemned the “unbridled” violence and drew a distinction between protesters with “legitimate demands” and “those who destroyed, smashed, and looted”. “Those who have destroyed must pay,” he said, vowing the government would be “uncompromising” towards “agitators from ultra-left fringe groups, joined by numerous delinquents”. He promised “full transparency” over the security forces’ response after criticism that police preparations had been inadequate, and said he had asked interior minister Laurent Nunez to “draw all necessary lessons”, particularly on intelligence gathering. Some opposition politicians have called for Nunez to be sacked.
“Tonight, we all feel anger and shame,” Macron said, adding that “our country deserves a fine presidential election”, marked by debates “with the parties, rather than in the streets with violence”.
The unrest comes months from a presidential election in which Macron cannot stand again and Marine Le Pen, the far-right National Rally candidate, is riding high in the polls. Le Pen said the troubles showed Macron’s administration was “running on fumes, exhausted and disoriented”. Her top lieutenant, Jordan Bardella, called the president’s speech a “lamentable” address from authorities with “nothing more to say” to France. Jean-Luc Melenchon, the hard-left France Unbowed candidate, urged Macron to respond to protesters’ demands, saying young people “need this episode to reach a positive conclusion”.
Saturday’s protests had brought together unions, the anti-Macron Yellow Vests movement and school students angered by the cost of living and the prospects for young people. “It’s like we had a war,” 78-year-old Paris resident Mehmet Ozeden told AFP amid burnt street barricades.
The unrest also drew a response from US President Donald Trump, who blamed immigration in a social media post. “France is burning! The immigration of people from an entirely different world, people with hatred in their hearts, has shattered that once great country,” he wrote.