Paris and several cities in France woke up this Sunday with an apocalyptic landscape, with many of its streets literally razed, among the remains of trash cans and burned cars, glass, pieces of cobblestone and looted shops. The day of demonstrations and violence on Saturday has left a balance of 1,800 arrested, 855 of them in Paris alone. There are 500 police officers injured and 1,500 businesses looted or destroyed. Without yet a global number of injured protesters, the Franceinfo network speaks of fifty. The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, will address the nation at eight in the afternoon.
The Place de la République in Paris, where the demonstration started and where clashes took place throughout the day until late into the night, is razed. The mayor of the capital, Emmanuel Gregoire, has summed it up like this: “It is a level of violence that we have not seen before in Paris.” Not even during the 2018 yellow vest protests.
One of the most impressive images was that of the fire at the Limoges Town Hall, southwest of Paris, which a group of individuals set on fire. The building, built in the 19th century, was declared a historical monument. It ended up being consumed by flames and the needle fell off. The violent people attacked public buildings in many other cities: in Marseille and Lille they also tried to attack the town hall, and in Lyon the flames reached the main tourist office.
Since Saturday, criticism has been growing, from mayors and opposition parties, of the Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, for not having known how to plan a police device at the level of what could be coming. Nobody expected, however, the scenes of violence that occurred, outside of the authorized demonstrations.
Despite the large police deployment, the agents were overwhelmed. The rioters threw projectiles and pieces of cobblestone at them and the police responded with tear gas and stun grenades. Groups of protesters burned trash cans, bikes and cars and then applauded, minutes later, the firefighters who came to put out the fires.
Some 800,000 people were mobilized throughout the country, according to the unions, 550,000 according to the Interior. The outbreaks of violence overshadowed the demands of the students, yellow vests, teachers, firefighters or pensioners who were protesting calmly. Due to the high cost of living, the rise in gasoline prices and the decline of the public education system.
The Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has convened a new crisis cell for late this Sunday afternoon, to begin assessing material damage, among other things. He has also announced that he will receive the mayors of Paris, Lyon and Marseille, who have criticized the lack of means to contain the violence.
Lecornu already pointed out on Saturday, almost at dawn, that the economic balance of the destruction would be great. He also warned that, looking at the images, it is strange that there have not been greater losses and more injuries. The Government attributes the outbreak to ultra-left, radicalized and “extremely violent and dangerous” individuals.
Although there were moments of tension with the police in many cities from early Saturday morning, the violence escalated and reached its peak in the afternoon, when the rioters approached the Champs-Elysées and the Place de la Madeleine, areas that were shielded due to their proximity to the Elysée Palace.
Throughout the night they attacked and looted businesses. In Paris, they tried to storm the iconic Galeries Lafayette, which was closed tight. The federation of commerce and distribution estimates hundreds of millions of euros in damage.
This Sunday, the mayor of Paris launched an emergency cell to accompany merchants, whose businesses have been completely devastated. The Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, has anticipated that the judicial response to the authors of yesterday's chaos and destruction will be firm. Macron already condemned on Saturday night "those who sow chaos, seek to overthrow institutions and prevent those who want to express themselves peacefully from doing so."
