France woke up on Monday with an intense political hangover from the riots on Saturday and Sunday. More than 3,000 businesses were looted with impunity, public buildings, such as the Limoges City Hall, were destroyed by flames and the Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, had to admit the obvious: they lost control of the situation. But the tension, which has left some 2,400 detained, has not ended and the yellow vests have called for a new demonstration next Saturday that forces them to change the strategy and take extreme measures.
The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, had demanded changes from the Government the night before in a lukewarm speech. Information services and forecasting failed, he lamented. And the French Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, responded in the morning by imposing partial curfews in certain cities, including Paris, to avoid new riots and looting of businesses. “I have asked the prefects to decree some curfews tonight to protect goods and services,” he announced.
The measures will begin in four northern cities: Lille, Douai, Wattignies et Denain. Paris, as announced by its deputy mayor, is very close to adopting a similar measure tonight. And the prime minister also gave more clues about what could happen. “Some points, either because of their symbolism or because they are places where transport converges, are especially problematic,” he added, pointing out places where the movement of people could be prohibited from a certain time, such as Les Halles, a shopping center and meeting place in the heart of Paris where numerous metro lines and trains that go to the outskirts of the capital converge.
Some French cities, especially those governed by mayors in the orbit of the extreme right, have already applied these types of measures for a long time, but they are intended only for minors. The Police Prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône, in the southeast, which includes Marseille, one of the cities most affected by the protests, announced on Monday the ban on “any gathering and demonstration in the entire municipality” from 12:00 to 20:00.
Lecornu did not rule out that a state of emergency could also be implemented “if it is useful,” but considered that curfews “seem more appropriate.” “All the tools within our reach can be used,” he said after a crisis cabinet meeting this Monday.
The feeling of loss of control was evident throughout the day on Saturday. But also on Sunday night, where the riots returned to the streets of Paris. Groups of hooded youths armed with sacks to store the fruit of their looting raided shops and even department stores. One of them, the well-known BHV, is located right next to the Paris City Hall. The situation is critical and the Executive is convinced that new episodes of violence will occur in the next few hours, which are already daily and end in looting of stores and destruction on public roads.
The images of the protests, associated with the looting and destruction in various parts of France, have gone around the world and have provoked reactions such as that of US President Donald Trump, who, oblivious to the students' demands, has considered that the origin of the demonstrations and riots are "migrants from a totally different world." “Close your borders and regain control before it is too late,” the Republican has asked on his Truth social network.
The leader of the extreme right, Marine Le Pen, the favorite in the polls ahead of the presidential elections in April, took aim at Jean-Luc Melenchon's La Francia Insumisa (LFI), as responsible for the violence recorded on Saturday. “Legitimate social demands have once again been taken hostage by the extreme left and Mélenchon's deputies who, by legitimizing violence and considering order as oppression and disorder as a right, intend for the country to plunge into chaos,” said the National Regroupment (RN) candidate on the social network X.
The growing feeling is that the entire political spectrum will now point to LFI as responsible. Mélenchon, favorite right now to advance to the second round of the presidential elections with Marine Le Pen, is the main obstacle for the moderate forces (center-left and center-right) to try to stop the extreme right. Lecornu, in fact, also assured that “the extreme left wants to organize a profound disorder until the presidential elections,” and denounced “a whole nebula” of groups and movements. But as the hours pass, it seems clear that the main disturbances were not caused by the protesters who peacefully participated in the march called on Saturday and supported by LFI.
The Minister of the Interior, who did not rule out declaring a state of emergency to deal with the crisis, avoided giving hot air and confirmed in an interview on France Inter that he had submitted his resignation to Macron because he was "responsible for everything that is happening." Nuñez admitted that the police deployment he implemented was, “in some respects, asymmetrical in relation to the volume of participants,” since participation was “clearly higher than anticipated.” In addition, he acknowledged that there had been a “loss of control” by the police in some cities. The count by the authorities amounts to some 2,400 arrests and nearly a thousand members of the security forces injured.
The head of state had appeared the night before in a televised speech and once again demanded transparency about the failures of foresight and intelligence that contributed to the riots, destruction and looting of hundreds of businesses. “It is a miracle that there have been no deaths,” Lecornu said.
Their forecasts estimated 200,000 protesters for Saturday, while the final figure was 500,000. “It is likely that the number of vandals and looters, as well as the presence of far-left activists, has also been underestimated,” he added. The minister specified that 60,000 people were mobilized on Saturday, including “all mobile forces, gendarmes and police officers.” “The question now is how to ensure that this does not happen again,” he stressed.
In a solemn televised statement on Sunday night, Macron warned that those who tried to attack republican institutions would have to answer for their actions before justice. The head of state admitted that the violence suffered had been “unheard of” and accused small groups of the “extreme left” supported by “numerous criminals.”
"I have asked the Government to draw all the necessary lessons in terms of intelligence, and it will be done with full transparency. The investigations will be carried out with the maximum (...) firmness," he explained. "Those who have destroyed must pay for it; those who have tried to overthrow the Republic will have to answer for their actions," he added.
