French President Emmanuel Macron has called for order following widespread protests over rising living costs and declining public services that descended into some of the country's worst urban violence in years.
Expressing "anger and shame" in a televised address on Sunday, President Macron vowed that violent rioters and looters would face justice while acknowledging the "legitimate demands" of peaceful demonstrators.
The unrest erupted on Saturday as over 500,000 people took to the streets nationwide, joining a month-long student movement alongside trade unions and anti-government groups. However, peaceful marches were quickly overshadowed by masked fringe groups and looters who torched public buildings, smashed luxury boutiques and clashed fiercely with security forces in cities including Paris, Marseille and Limoges.
The Interior Ministry reported nearly 2,400 arrests across France, with around 1,000 police officers injured. One protester died from cardiac arrest during demonstrations in Paris. In Limoges, a fiery blaze destroyed the historic city hall's clock tower while major retailers like Carrefour reported dozens of looted stores with damages estimated in the tens of millions of euros.
Despite pressure from political rivals, Macron stopped short of declaring a state of emergency or curfew. Instead, he announced a "crisis unit" to assist affected businesses and authorized local officials to ban high-risk protests to protect public property.
The chaos has intensified political tensions ahead of upcoming presidential elections. Opposition figures on both the hard-left and far-right condemned the government's handling of the crisis, criticizing its failure to maintain public order and address growing public discontent. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu is scheduled to hold a crisis cabinet meeting on Monday to manage the fallout.
