By PETER ALLEN
Published: | Updated:
Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte were compared to Marie Antoinette on Friday after they were pictured dancing at a Celine Dion concert just hours before France was engulfed in riots against his failing government.
Clapping along in a private box on Friday evening, the couple seemed oblivious to the mood of a France enraged by soaring living costs, collapsing public finances and an administration paralysed in stalemate.
The President, 48, and Brigitte, 73, are unlikely to meet the fate of the guillotined queen but there was revolution in the air as 550,000 took to the streets on Friday.
Barricades and public buildings blazed, cars were overturned and running battles broke out between police and protesters in cities nationwide.
By 6pm there had been more than 400 arrests, almost 200 in Paris. Few corners of the country were spared. In Lyon, mobs set fire to the historic tourist office – a 'tragedy', said the city's mayor.
Nearby, hooded youths threw rocks and fireworks at police, who responded with tear gas, dispersal grenades and water cannon.
Thugs broke into the town hall in Marseille and vandalised a statue of Marianne, the personification of the French republic. 'We're taking the Bastille,' a demonstrator shouted in reference to the 1789 storming of the Paris fortress.
In Paris, protesters scuffled and blocked roads around Gare du Nord, the Eurostar terminus. Clouds of tear gas filled the Place de la Republique, where youths in black balaclavas threw fireworks and fought with riot police.
Barricades and public buildings blazed on Friday across France, with cars overturned and running battles breaking out between police and protesters (Pictured: violent clashes between protesters and the French Police during the demonstration at Place de la Republique)
President Macron and his wife Brigitte were compared to Marie Antoinette after they were pictured dancing at a Celine Dion concert just hours before France was engulfed in riots
Protests that began last month over the state of schools in poor suburbs of Paris have grown into nationwide action over inequality (Pictured: Limoges town hall engulfed in flames amid protests)
Some carried baguettes, a reminder that bread shortages have triggered revolutions. Protesters also broke into Lille city hall. The city hall in Grenoble was damaged too and property vandalised in Pau, Montpellier, Toulouse and Valence.
Saturday also saw clashes in Brussels, where a car was overturned. School and university students are being joined by the 'Gilet Jaunes', or yellow vest protesters who brought chaos at the start of Macron's reign.
'Macron and Brigitte are acting like Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette [who were executed in the 1789 revolution]. They appear to think that there is no problem with anything,' said Lina Bernard, an organiser of a protest rally in northern Paris.
Protests that began last month over the state of schools in poor suburbs of Paris have grown into nationwide action over inequality.
Macron has to stand down in May when he completes the maximum two terms for a President.
He has blamed the hard-Left France Unbowed and other Leftist groups for inflaming the protests – an accusation they all deny.
Additional reporting: Nicholas Pyke and Elizabeth Haigh