Paris. After a nationwide day of protests that saw unprecedented rioting and looting, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu denounced “appalling levels of violence.” 150 police officers were injured and around 1,200 people were arrested. On the sidelines of the protests against high costs of living, in which hundreds of thousands took part, there was violence, looting and property damage in many cities, with damages running into millions of dollars.
In the city of Limoges, for example, rioters set fire to the listed town hall, which largely burned out. The mayor of the central French city, Guillaume Guérin, said, according to broadcaster lci: "There are no words to condemn what happened, it is so disgusting. The country is in a chaotic situation." He spoke surrounded by deputies who had tears in their eyes. “They destroyed a building dear to the people of Limoges, but they did not destroy public services,” he said.
Various groups joined the day of protest, including schoolchildren and students who have been demonstrating for better learning conditions for weeks. The call for protest, which could not be clearly assigned to any organization, was also about high fuel prices, low wages, the large number of low-wage workers and problems in agriculture and the fire department. However, due to the already high budget deficit and France's high level of debt, the government's scope for responding to the demonstrators' demands is limited.
Prime Minister Lecornu said that throughout the day the police had faced "a particularly violent ultra-left," "a very well-organized, opaque group that methodically tried to attack property, people, but also the institutions of the republic," Lecornu said. It is “a political maneuver that condones violence.” He emphasized: “We will not be intimidated by this.”
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin spoke late on Saturday evening of “riots of unprecedented proportions that are still ongoing.” The minister said he had “again called on all attorneys general and public prosecutors to demonstrate an extremely decisive legal response, commensurate with the violence that has plagued our country.”
President Emmanuel Macron threatened those responsible with consequences. “There is no place for violence in our republic,” he said in the evening. “Those who destroyed and attacked both prefectures and businesses, and even looted our town halls, will be prosecuted and punished.”
In Marseille, demonstrators tried to break into a police station, gained access to the town hall and looted shops, according to the Interior Ministry. In Lyon, the tourist information office was set on fire and there was damage to shops. The fire brigade was prevented from taking action by rioters. In Avignon, rioters broke into the inner courtyard of the prefecture and in Grenoble there was damage to the town hall.
The mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, reported that the streets were completely devastated. “I witnessed things that made me mad: rioters setting fire to shops at the foot of residential buildings,” he told broadcaster BFMTV.
According to media reports, there were also injuries among the demonstrators. In Saint-Étienne, a 17-year-old had his hand torn off by a grenade fired by police, the newspaper Le Figaro reported. In Nancy, eastern France, three people were injured by a stun grenade fired by emergency services, wrote the newspaper “L'Est Républicain”.
Before the day of protest, there was a call online for a new edition of the so-called yellow vest movement. The student protests of the past few weeks had actually led the government to worry that the demonstrations could lead to widespread protests. The yellow vest protest, so called because many of those involved wore yellow high-visibility vests, kept France in suspense for a long time in 2019.
A new president will be elected in France next year. Incumbent Emmanuel Macron can no longer run. Polls have long seen the right-wing national candidate Marine Le Pen in the lead in the first round of the presidential election, most recently with around 34 percent. Some surveys saw the left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon in second place, but in some surveys he was recently overtaken by the center-right candidate Édouard Philippe.
