“I submitted my resignation because I am responsible for everything,” says Laurent Nuñez, after the clashes and looting during the mobilization of October 17

The Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, submitted his resignation to the Head of State, Emmanuel Macron, on Sunday.

“I submitted my resignation because I am responsible for everything that is happening,” he explained Monday October 19 on France Inter.

“I have a sense of the general interest and, given the damage that has been done, it was normal for me to resign.”

Emmanuel Macron did not accept it in the name of "the need for continued command of the police in the current context", the Élysée said in a press release on Monday.

He asked Laurent Nuñez to deploy a new doctrine of maintaining order “in the face of thugs”.

“Now, the issue that arises is that this violence does not happen again,” continues the Minister of the Interior.

“We obviously need to be better at anticipating mobilization as it occurs.”

For Laurent Nuñez, on Saturday, in several cities in France, "the system put in place found itself in asymmetry compared to the volume of participants and demonstrators for normal processions".

“We had forecasts of 200,000 demonstrators,” notes the minister, while, this Saturday, more than “550,000 people mobilized” throughout France.

The Minister of the Interior explains that 60,000 members of the police have been mobilized.

If, during the Let's Block Everything in 2025 movement, 80,000 police officers and gendarmes were on the ground, Laurent Nuñez recalls that these were, at that time, operations aimed at "blocking the country" and not a "declared demonstration" like that of Saturday.

The Minister of the Interior recognizes a "loss of control" in certain large cities on Saturday: "In certain large cities, when you have hundreds of businesses looted, you cannot look at traders and say that we have not lost control."

According to the minister, this day was “extremely difficult to manage” for the internal security forces.

Laurent Nuñez announces that in the future there will be a "rise in power of our doctrines of intervention against thugs and looters" so that, "when these groups break out and loot businesses, the police can be mobile and reactive".

The minister assures that “everything will be done to ensure that this does not happen again”.