Macron says 'nothing justifies' the violence as France counts 2,400 arrests and almost 1,000 injured officers after a day of riots
In a televised address, the French president condemned what he called unbridled violence and said local officials could ban gatherings. Town halls were burned or stormed, more than 1,500 shops were ransacked and politicians on the left and right are demanding the interior minister's resignation.
Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation on Sunday evening after one of the most violent days of unrest France has seen in years, asking viewers how French people could 'do this to France'. The president said 'nothing justifies' the violence and announced that local state representatives would be able to ban certain street gatherings if they judged it necessary.
Macron drew a line between peaceful demonstrators protesting over the cost of living and the state of schools, and those who 'destroy, ransack and loot', blaming what he called factious groups from the ultra-left joined by numerous delinquents. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the government would not be intimidated. Politicians on both the left and the right have called for Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez to resign, after the government appeared to be caught off guard by the scale of Saturday's violence.
The interior ministry said nearly 2,400 people were arrested on Saturday and almost 1,000 police officers and gendarmes were injured, seven of them seriously. Paris alone recorded 855 arrests, a record according to police. In Limoges, rioters burned down the 19th-century town hall; its mayor said municipal police had run out of ammunition and called it 'a colossal failure of the state'. Masked groups stormed the city hall and a police station in Marseille, and Lyon's historic tourist office was set on fire.
Traders' unions say more than 1,500 shops and businesses were ransacked, with damage running into tens of millions of euros. Two teenagers were seriously hurt: a 17-year-old boy lost his right hand to a crowd-control grenade in Saint-Étienne and a 17-year-old girl lost an eye in Mulhouse, where an investigation has been opened. Clashes resumed on Sunday afternoon at Place de la République in Paris, where police used tear gas and stun grenades.
The protests grew out of weeks of school blockades and marches by pupils demanding more teachers and repairs to run-down schools, joined by parents, teachers and workers angry about living costs. Similar demonstrations have taken place in Spain, Italy and Portugal.
Source: The Guardian (with France 24)