PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron has criticized “unbridled violence” after one of the most violent days of unrest in years left public buildings burned, hundreds of shops destroyed and looted and at least 2,400 people arrested in cities across the country.
“Watching these images, we have all asked ourselves how could French people do this to France?” he said in a televised address to the nation from the Élysée Palace.
Macron called for “calm and order” and said “nothing justifies” violence and that local state officials would be able to ban certain street gatherings if they deemed it necessary.
He said a distinction must be drawn between what he called genuine, peaceful demonstrators making demands over the cost of living and the education system, and others who “destroy, ransack and loot”.
He criticized what he called “fractious groups from the ultra-left, joined by numerous delinquents”.
Some 550,000 demonstrators took to the streets for largely peaceful protests against rising fuel prices, the cost of living and deteriorating public services, including schools.
Police have arrested about 2,400 people, according to France’s interior ministry.
Politicians on the left and right called for the resignation of Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez after the government appeared to have been caught by surprise by the scale of violence on Saturday as state buildings were stormed and torched, bus stops smashed, roads barricaded and shops broken into and destroyed.
Crowds clashed with police at Place de la République in central Paris on Sunday afternoon as violence flared for a second day. Electric bikes were piled in some streets and set alight.
Groups of rioters, some dressed in black and wearing masks and balaclavas, also came out in Marseille and other towns and cities, with some setting fire to cars and buildings.
Tear gas and stun grenades were fired at hundreds of people in Paris, according to the AFP news agency, and bottles and rocks were again hurled at police.
Sunday saw cities across the country confront the impact of what developed into one of the worst bouts of disorder in modern French history.
In Limoges, the ornate 19th-century city hall was gutted by a fire started by rioters on Saturday, its clock tower and roof collapsing and the flames took hold.
Shopkeepers were seen early on Sunday morning picking up large shards of glass in Paris as rubbish trucks cleared up debris on some of the larger streets.
Widespread looting took place across the cities of Paris, Marseille and Lille, as well as other areas.
Macron said local prefects and mayors would draft measures to protect shops and civic buildings.
The president also said there would be “full transparency” over the police response to the demonstrations.
Tear gas and water cannons were turned on crowds over the weekend and riot police were seen hitting people with batons in several places.
France’s interior ministry said about 1,000 police officers were injured on Saturday, seven of them seriously.
Student protests which began last month escalated significantly on Saturday after they were joined by trade union members and other anti-government groups.
The response from political figures has pointed to France’s deep political divisions as the country prepares for an election in April which could see the hard-right pitted against the hard-left.
France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said that while demonstrating was a fundamental right, there were “outrages” committed by “several thousand far-left individuals” who were determined to target public buildings and confront the police.
Later, they were joined by “delinquents who looted and ransacked numerous businesses in several cities in France”, he said.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the hard-left La France Insoumise party, heavily criticised Nuñez and police chiefs on social media.
He said they had “shown complete incompetence” with their handling of the demonstrations and called them “specialists in organised chaos”.
Meanwhile, the leader of the hard-right National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, condemned the “exploitation” of anger “by political forces that encourage violence”.