France was reeling on Sunday from widespread damage caused in violent protests the day before that saw 1,800 people arrested, a historic town hall torched and widespread looting.
The convulsion, which officials described as of extraordinary intensity, raised the stakes for President Emmanuel Macron, who is in his final months in power before elections to replace him in six months’ time. It followed weeks of student protests that had also turned violent at times.
Around “1,800 people have been arrested and now investigations are under way to identify the perpetrators of these acts so they can be brought to justice”, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on X on Sunday.
In Paris, where police said a “record” 855 people had been arrested, streets were littered with the burnt-out remains of barricades built by protesters using bikes and bins and other materials. Several streets had smashed shop windows and the remains of torched cars.
The capital experienced “a level of violence that we have never, I believe, seen before”, said Paris deputy mayor Lamia El Aaraje.
Paris and many other cities, including Marseille, Bordeaux, Nice and Strasbourg, had scores of shops pillaged by masked youths during the protests, which had been called against high inflation and the cost of living.
– ‘Wild horde’ –
The city of Limoges lost its 19th-century town hall to a fire the local prefect, Maurice Barate, told LCI television had been deliberately set by “a wild horde”. The fire was only brought under control early Sunday.
Political recriminations flew over the scenes of destruction.
Macron’s centrist government and far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen both blamed “ultra-left” groups for the violence.
Far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who had prominently backed the demonstrations, late Saturday urged demonstrators to stay away from any looting, describing it as “contrary to our methods”.
Paris’s Socialist deputy mayor, Lamia El Aaraje, accused Le Pen’s party of fuelling tensions around the protests to further her ambition of becoming president next year.
The far-right National Rally party was “acting like a pyromaniac firefighter”, El Aaraje said.
US Vice President JD Vance also waded in, implying that the unrest stemmed from immigration.
“Western liberals imported the third world into France and other countries in the name of diversity and compassion. They ignored fundamental questions of assimilation and compatibility,” Vance said on X.
– 500 arrested in Paris –
In Paris, where startled tourists had been seen Saturday running with suitcases along streets filled with tear gas and protesters, the prosecutor’s office said more than 500 people were in custody.
It said arrests had been carried out through the night until early Sunday, with most taken into custody on suspicion of receiving stolen goods, association with intent to commit violence, and vandalism.
Officials in Lyon said 160 people were in custody there.
Around 500 police, firemen and paramedics were hurt in the protests, Interior Minister Nunez said, adding that the figure was provisional.
The violence took place on the sidelines of nationwide cost-of-living protests that the interior ministry said were attended by 550,000 people. The CGT union said 800,000 people participated.
Police used tear gas and water cannon against protesters who threw projectiles and aimed fireworks.
A 17-year-old boy had his right hand blown off by a crowd-control grenade in the southern city of Saint-Etienne.
Analyst Mujtaba Rahman of the Eurasia Group think tank said on X that Saturday’s “terrible scenes” were “not political protest in any true sense. Most of the real demonstrations against high oil prices and failing schools were peaceful”.
He added: “The violence came from a fringe of the ultra left. The looting by opportunistic gangs from the poor suburbs. All good news for Marine Le Pen.”
During and after those demonstrations, gangs of youths roamed city streets, sporadically confronting police, while setting fires and attacking shuttered stores to break in and empty their shelves.
France’s Yellow Vest movement, which staged street protests eight years ago against Macron’s government over planned fuel-tax hikes, had called Saturday’s “yellow and youth” demonstrations.
The principal grievance was the cost of living, pushed up in part by the war in the Middle East that has helped send inflation soaring in Europe as elsewhere.
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