French President Emmanuel Macron pledged on Saturday evening to hold to account everyone involved in the violence that accompanied protests across France, after demonstrations started by high school students and joined by people angry at the cost of living turned into clashes with police, arson and looting in dozens of cities.
In his statement, Macron said: “Those who smash and destroy, who carry out attacks on prefectures and businesses, who loot our town halls will be put on trial and punished. We will stand together against those who sow the seeds of chaos and want nothing but to tear down our institutions. There is no room for violence in our Republic.”
The president spoke at the end of a broad day of protest that drew around 800,000 people according to the CGT union, against 550,000 according to the Interior Ministry, which said about 400 people had been detained. In many cities, hours-long clashes saw police fire tear gas at protesters who pelted them with stones and bottles.
Capital: clashes 400 meters from the presidency
In Paris, the clashes reached the area around the Élysée Palace. Rue Cambacérès, some 400 meters from the presidential offices, was filled with stones and a car was overturned in the middle of it. Protesters chased and pelted police cars and vans, and a Le Parisien reporter described the scene as “urban guerrilla warfare.”
Protesters stormed the 10th arrondissement town hall during a “Pink October” breast cancer awareness event, leaving about 100 people stuck inside for a time. Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire condemned the destruction, noting that the “vast majority” of demonstrators had marched peacefully, and said: “Entire streets have been ravaged.”
At night, a number of protesters climbed onto the gilded statue of Joan of Arc in the heart of the capital as a crowd filmed them on their phones.
Some demonstrators also chanted a slogan recalling the guillotining of King Louis XVI during the French Revolution: “Let’s cut off the king’s head. Macron, we’ll start again.”
Limoges loses its historic town hall
The harshest images came from Limoges. Witnesses said masked people burned a police car outside the town hall, then broke windows, entered the building and set it on fire, with the flames quickly reaching the roof.
Haute-Vienne prefect Maurice Barate announced that the 143-year-old building had been largely lost. According to Barate, the roof collapsed onto the lower floors except in the west wing, and two-thirds of the facade was destroyed. He called it a “catastrophe for heritage” and a “deliberate act by hooligans,” and shops in the city center were looted as well.
Widespread looting of stores
In Marseille, dozens of shops were looted and a sports shoe store caught fire. Footage showed a crowd leaving a Fnac electronics store laden with phones, game consoles and headphones.
In another scene, a hooded, masked group ripped off the door of a Louis Vuitton luxury store and went inside.
Protesters set fire to a tourist office in Lyon and stormed the official residence of the Gironde prefect in Bordeaux, prompting authorities to deploy the RAID special unit. The town hall in Lille was stormed, and Le Parisien reported that a protester in Saint-Étienne lost a hand to a police crowd-dispersal grenade.
The attacks also targeted firefighters. A video shows a man who attacked a fire crew being knocked down and beaten by other protesters.
Lecornu blames the ultra-left
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu argued that “ultra-left groups” had orchestrated the violence in several cities and stressed that police had faced “violence of extreme intensity.” Warning against exploiting the unrest as a “warm-up” ahead of the presidential election, he said: “We will not be intimidated.”
From schools to the streets
The movement began in mid-September at a high school in the Créteil suburb southeast of Paris, after a teachers’ strike over shortages of staff and resources. Students want solutions to teacher shortages, overcrowded classes of 32 to 35 pupils and aging buildings, and complain about classrooms reaching 40 degrees Celsius in summer and the pressure of the Parcoursup university admissions platform. Unions tie the crisis to budget cuts and school closures.
School blockades spread across the whole country, and university students joined in early October. According to the Justice Ministry, more than 5,000 people had been detained by Oct. 6, 87% of them minors. After a 15-year-old lost a hand to a police grenade in Lens, the government suspended the use of stun grenades, and Lecornu asked ministers to submit initial proposals before the end of October.
The protests have also resonated outside France. On Saturday, police used tear gas in Milan, Italy, and clashes took place in Brussels. The United Nations had earlier voiced concern about the violence in France.
