Emmanuel Macron rejects the resignation of Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez due to the explosion of violence in France

Emmanuel Macron has rejected the resignation of Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, who assumed "full responsibility" for the chaos to contain the explosion of violence after the demonstrations on October 17 that resulted in 2,300 arrests, 1,500 looted businesses and almost a thousand police officers injured throughout France.

The French president, criticized from right to left for his lukewarm message to the nation and the lack of concrete measures, decided to keep Nuñez in his position due to the need for "continuous command of the security forces in the current context," as specified by the Elysee Palace in a statement.

Macron, who today begins a three-day tour of the Middle East, has asked Nuñez to immediately deploy "new modes of action against the troublemakers." The French president acknowledged "the deficiencies of anticipation and information" that contributed to the overwhelm of law enforcement during Saturday's riots in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Nantes, Bordeaux, Limoges and other cities.

"I submitted my resignation because I am responsible for everything that happened," Laurent Nuñez himself admitted on Monday in statements to France Inter. "The question now is how to ensure this does not happen again."

Looting

"Hundreds of businesses were looted with the intervention of numerous rioters," Nuñez added. "Our forecasts regarding participation in the demonstrations (estimated at 550,000 people) were two and a half times lower than reality."

"The device was disproportionate to the volume of participants," acknowledged the Minister of the Interior. "But also the number of rioters, looters and far-left militants that caused situations to degenerate."

Nuñez, who was scheduled to visit Marseille on Monday, admitted "the loss of control of the police in some cities" and took responsibility for "the lack of foresight regarding the available forces."

In Paris, meanwhile, Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire denounced up to 30 lootings that occurred on Sunday night, especially in the Les Halles area, hours after new clashes with the police in the Place de la République that resulted in the firing of tear gas and almost a hundred arrests. Grégoire and other mayors have called for citizen support rallies in front of town halls for Monday at noon after the fire that devastated the Limoges town hall.

The Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, convened a new inter-ministerial emergency cell early in the morning, while the Minister of Justice Gerald Darmanin also admitted his share of responsibility for the incidents and the failure of the Intelligence services.