Laurent Nuñez says he offered his resignation on Sunday, but according to a statement from the presidential staff at the Élysée Palace, Emmanuel Macron refused, saying the minister’s leadership was needed in the current situation.
The president said efforts to predict and prevent the weekend’s violence had failed and that Nuñez was expected to “take all necessary measures to ensure transparency” about what happened.
The police lost control of the situation in several cities, the interior minister admitted in an interview with France Inter.
“I take my share of responsibility. But we must not forget the looters, the vandals and the violent far left,” Nuñez said.
City Hall burned down
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across France on Saturday, angered by the high cost of living, underfunded schools and the incumbent government. In many places, the protests turned violent, with widespread vandalism and looting of shops.
Thousands of people were detained by security forces, who in turn are accused of widespread violence. Two teenage boys have had their hands blown off by stun grenades in the past week, and a teenage girl is reported to have lost an eye.
In Limoges, in central France, the city hall was set on fire. The roof and tower of the 19th-century building collapsed in flames.
There are no excuses for resorting to violence, President Emmanuel Macron said in a televised address to the nation on Sunday evening:
We will be uncompromising (...) The legal aftermath must be exemplary. Those who have destroyed must pay. Those who have been looted must be compensated.
Accusing each other
Macron expressed some understanding of the dissatisfaction with his education policy, but when it came to high gasoline and diesel prices, he pointed to the US war in the Middle East, “a war that France has not been a part of.”
When it comes to the violence, politicians are trading accusations.
“Thank you, Mélenchon,” the president’s Renaissance party wrote on social media. Outspoken left-wing leader and presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon is accused of inciting the violence. During the protests in recent weeks, he has clearly sided with the demonstrators.
Mélenchon’s left-wing LFI party blames the government’s inadequate crisis management. Opposition leaders on both sides of Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government - the National Rally, the Republicans, the Green party EELV and the Communist Party - accuse the president of giving a televised speech without actually saying or promising anything.