Shock in France due to the magnitude of the destruction and criticism of the Government

France woke up this Sunday shocked and outraged to see the magnitude of the destruction that occurred during Saturday's protest, a truly black day of violence and looting. The provisional balance is 1,200 arrested throughout the country, 150 police officers injured and more than 600 businesses looted.

The political repercussion of such a fiasco on the maintenance of public order is evident. The criticism is directed at the Government, specifically the Minister of the Interior, Laurent Núñez, who did not know how to foresee the scope of the potential riots and was overwhelmed by the events. The mayors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon have asked for explanations.

The reproaches come from all sectors. Left-wing political forces, especially France Insoumise (LFI), claim that the police, at least in Paris, acted provocatively, launching tear gas in the Place de la République, the starting point of the demonstrations, more than an hour before the start of the march. LFI is in turn accused by the center, the right and the extreme right of systematically minimizing violence and of being condescending towards those who attend protests with the intention of provoking disorder.

The damage is difficult to calculate, but immense. Shops, supermarkets and department stores in the center of large cities were victims of urban guerrilla scenes that, unfortunately, are periodically repeated in France. Electronics companies like Apple or Orange, food chains like Monoprix, fashion boutiques (Kenzo, Christian Dior, Hugo Boss, North Face), legendary names like Galeries Lafayette. The general director of Carrefour, Alexandre Bompard, who visited one of its looted stores in the capital, estimated the losses in all its attacked establishments at millions of euros. In the streets, vehicles, kiosks and containers burned, paving stones torn away. Many stores will take days to reopen, there will be employees on partial unemployment. A lot of work for insurers. Public aid is requested at a time of serious budgetary difficulties.

The big question is whether, as happened with the yellow vest revolt in 2018 and 2019, what happened on Saturday will be just the beginning of a long crisis of public order that could last until the presidential elections next spring or beyond, an explosive situation for the country, under surveillance for its public debt.

Regardless of the specific political responsibility in this case, a much deeper, sociological, historical debate will once again be opened on what is a French pathology, that tendency to turn any social protest into a frenzy of urban violence.