French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday vowed to hold accountable those involved in rioting and looting during nationwide protests over rising living costs and poor conditions in schools, as police arrested at least 1,800 people.
“Those who looted will have to pay back for the damage, and those who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable,” Macron said in a televised address to the nation, expressing public “anger” and “shame” over the violence.
He blamed the unrest on “insurrectionist elements from radical far-left groups, joined by numerous criminals”.
Macron had earlier held an emergency meeting with senior government officials following Saturday’s violence, when masked groups set fires and attacked public buildings, including city halls, in several cities.
He said he had instructed prefects to work with mayors to protect public buildings and businesses in the coming weeks, including by banning demonstrations when necessary.
In Limoges, a city in central France, fire engulfed the 19th-century City Hall, causing its roof to collapse and nearly destroying the building.
Hundreds of protesters gathered again at Paris’ Place de la République on Sunday amid a heavy police presence. Officers used tear gas as tensions flared, with small groups attempting to set bicycles and rubbish bins on fire.
“The right to protest is a fundamental right. Deliberately and collectively sowing disorder through violence is not,” Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez wrote on X, referring to the looting of hundreds of businesses in cities including Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux.
Authorities estimated that around 550,000 people participated in demonstrations across France, while organisers put the figure at about 800,000.
The protests followed calls from labour unions, student organisations and activists seeking to revive the “yellow vest” movement, which emerged in 2018 to protest social injustice.
Large demonstrations in France are often marred by violence on the fringes of otherwise peaceful marches, resulting in clashes with police. The number of arrests reported on Sunday approached the nearly 2,000 recorded nationwide during a single day of yellow vest protests in December 2018.
One person died of a heart attack, Paris police said in a statement without providing further details. The Paris prosecutor’s office said it was investigating the death.
Parisians shocked by destruction
Dislodged cobblestones, shattered shopfronts and broken glass littered the area around Place de la République on Sunday. Looting and damage were also reported in other tourist and shopping districts.
Paris police said 855 people had been arrested in the capital region, while the city’s prosecutor’s office reported that 557 remained in police custody.
“I am actually stunned by the level of destruction and violence that was expressed,” said Marie Peyreigne, a 57-year-old government employee, questioning what had led to the chaos.
Residents surveying the damage photographed the partially dismantled base of the square’s central monument, a statue of Marianne, a symbol of France.
Jean Foissy, 74, said he had intended to join the protest but encountered “a wall of riot police and fires everywhere” and returned home.
“I was very scared,” he said, adding that the destruction had left him deeply upset as a lifelong Parisian.
Margaux Eude, 26, said she supported the protest movement but had not expected the situation to escalate so severely.
“It’s the troublemakers who came, and it breaks my heart because it delegitimizes the movement,” she said.
Political leaders trade accusations
Political leaders across the political spectrum sought to use the fallout from Saturday’s riots to their advantage ahead of next spring’s presidential election.
Far-right leader and presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen criticised Macron’s centrist government as “exhausted, disoriented and seemingly incapable of doing anything other than commenting on its own powerlessness”, in a video posted on social media on Sunday.
Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon accused Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu of “playing with fire”, arguing that the government’s approach had united young people and labour unions.
Mélenchon, who joined Saturday’s march in Paris, said those supporting the movement had no place in looting or destruction.
US President Donald Trump also commented on the unrest, posting “France is burning!” on his Truth Social platform and linking the violence to immigration.
“Close your Borders and take control, before it is too late!” he wrote.
French authorities and police have not linked immigrants to the rioting. They have instead attributed some of the violence to radical far-left groups and others who joined the protests to loot businesses.
