French President Emmanuel Macron has appealed for calm after a nationwide wave of protests over rising living costs and declining public services descended into violence, leaving one person dead, thousands arrested and hundreds of shops damaged or looted.
Fresh clashes erupted in Paris and Marseille on Sunday as riot police intervened to prevent further attacks on businesses, a day after demonstrations escalated into some of France’s worst unrest in years.
In a televised address, Macron condemned the violence, expressing anger and shame over the destruction of public and private property.
“Nothing justifies it, nothing explains it, nothing excuses it. Tonight, we all feel anger and shame,” he said.
The President, however, distinguished peaceful demonstrators from those involved in violence, acknowledging that protesters had legitimate grievances over the cost of living and declining public services.
Saturday’s demonstrations spread across several cities, with protesters looting shops, vandalising buildings and clashing with security forces. A town hall was set ablaze, while public buildings and businesses were targeted.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said police arrested 2,400 people nationwide, while nearly 1,000 officers were injured. One protester also died after suffering a cardiac arrest during demonstrations in Paris.
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On Sunday afternoon, police fired tear gas at Place de la République in Paris as clashes resumed and protesters set fire to piles of bicycles. A Reuters witness reported that several hundred demonstrators were gathered in the area.
Authorities blamed the violence on far-left groups and criminal elements accused of instigating looting.
A large-scale clean-up operation was launched in cities across France, including Lille, Marseille, Strasbourg and Bordeaux, where a masked group reportedly invaded the residence of the local prefect.
The unrest followed a month-long student protest movement that merged with wider public discontent over rising prices and deteriorating public services. More than 500,000 people reportedly participated in demonstrations across the country on Saturday, although many protested peacefully.
Macron stopped short of declaring a state of emergency, as demanded by some right-wing politicians. He said, however, that the government would empower prefects to ban demonstrations where necessary to protect public buildings and businesses.
The violence has intensified pressure on Macron, whose presidency ends in 2027 after a decade in power increasingly marked by social discontent, economic difficulties and rising public debt.
Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally and a leading contender ahead of next year’s presidential election, also called for calm.
“Violence is not an opinion. Destruction is not a form of expression. And chaos cannot serve as a project for France,” she said in a video address.
Meanwhile, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the presidential candidate of the hard-left France Unbowed party, said Macron needed to address the demands of protesting secondary school students.
In Limoges, a fire destroyed the town hall’s clock tower, reviving memories of the 2019 blaze that devastated Paris’ Notre-Dame Cathedral.
The city’s mayor, Guillaume Guérin, told Reuters that the attack appeared deliberate and that people inside the building had feared for their lives. He threatened to resign if the city did not receive sufficient funding to repair the damage.
Economy Minister Roland Lescure pledged government support for businesses affected by the violence, warning that those responsible would be held accountable and required to pay for the damage.
Carrefour Chief Executive Alexandre Bompard told French broadcaster BFMTV that 50 of the retailer’s outlets had been damaged, including 20 that were looted, with losses estimated at tens of millions of euros.
