As half a million demonstrators took to the streets for largely peace protests, there’s now been 2,400 arrests across France.
French President Emmanuel Macron said ‘nothing justifies’ the ‘unbridled’ violence seen over the weekend, as protests turned into rioting and looting.
Rioters, some dressed in black and wearing balaclavas, were seen setting fire to cars and buildings in Paris.
An estimated 1,500 shops and businesses were looted and destroyed.
Macron expressed the public’s ‘anger’ and ‘shame’ over nationwide protests against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools.
He blamed much of the violence on far-left activists, accusing them of attacking police and public buildings to foment chaos.
In a televised address to the nation on Sunday, he said those who ‘attacked government buildings’ would ‘pay for their crimes’.
Some 550,000 demonstrators took to the streets to protest (AP/Emma Da Silva)
Macron said: “Looking at these images, we have all asked ourselves: what was going through their minds? How can French people do this to France?
“Nothing justifies it, nothing explains it, nothing excuses it. Tonight, we all feel anger and shame.”
He added: “Those who looted will have to pay back for the damage, and those who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable.”
An estimated 1,500 shops and businesses were looted and destroyed (AP/Emma Da Silva)
In Limoges in central France, where the 19th-century town hall was burned down, the mayor, Guillaume Guérin, said the people who stormed his building ‘were not demonstrators that defend causes’ but ‘people organised for war’.
“The right to protest is a fundamental right. Deliberately and collectively sowing disorder through violence is not,” interior minister Laurent Nunez wrote on X, citing the looting of hundreds of businesses in cities including Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux.
Authorities estimated Saturday’s marches had a turnout of about 550,000, while organisers put it at 800,000.
There’s now been 2,400 arrests across France (AP/Emma Da Silva)
Parisian Jean Foissy, 74, said he wanted to join the protest but found ‘a wall of riot police and fires everywhere’, and went back home.
“I was very scared,” he said. “I’ve been a Parisian since I was born, so when I got here, it almost made me want to cry because I find it so bad, it hurts me.”
Margaux Eude, 26, said she supports the protest movement but ‘didn’t think it would escalate like this’.
“It’s the troublemakers who came, and it breaks my heart because it delegitimises the movement”, she said.
In eastern France, the Mulhouse prosecutor’s office said an investigation has been opened after a 17-year-old girl was injured during the protests and lost an eye.
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