France Protests: 2,397 Arrests, Limoges City Hall Burned
Macron addressed the nation on Sunday night after Saturday's unrest in dozens of cities, in which Limoges city hall burned and almost 1,000 police officers were injured.
The protests in France over the cost of living and the position of young people ended on Saturday, October 17, in the worst violence in several years. The Interior Ministry reports 2,397 arrests and 997 injured police officers and gendarmes, seven of them seriously. President Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation on Sunday night, and he introduced neither a state of emergency nor a curfew.
We previously reported on the first clashes, when more than 270 people were detained and fires broke out in Lyon. The picture has changed since then: the city hall in Limoges has burned, shops were looted in several cities, and Macron announced that local authorities will be able to ban certain gatherings.
What happened on Saturday, October 17?
People took to the streets of dozens of French cities at the call of trade unions, the Yellow Vests movement and high school students. The ministry estimates that 550,000 people joined the marches, while the CGT union claims 800,000. The trigger was the high cost of living, and the protests also absorbed student demonstrations from a month earlier over school conditions and teacher shortages in working-class suburbs.
“We are fed up with being treated like slaves for miserable wages while our rents keep going up,” said teacher Regine Monfroux in Strasbourg.
The violence began on the edges of the marches. According to reports, the damage breaks down as follows:
- Limoges: the city hall, 143 years old, burned down for the most part. Prefect Maurice Barat told the television channel LCI that the fire was set by a “wild horde.”
- Lyon: a tourist office in the city center was set on fire.
- Marseille and Lille: city halls were broken into and damaged.
- Looting: reported in Paris, Marseille, Nice, Nantes, Bordeaux, Limoges, Lille, Toulouse and Strasbourg. Bordeaux mayor Thomas Cazenave says up to 100 shops were looted in his city.
Alexandre Bompard, chief executive of the Carrefour chain, told BFMTV that 50 of its stores were damaged, 20 of them looted.
Limoges mayor Guillaume Guerin told Reuters there was a “clear, premeditated intent to burn down the city hall, and the people inside feared for their lives.” He threatened to resign if the city does not receive money to repair the building.
The figures differ from source to source. The Abu Dhabi newspaper The National, citing the minister, reports more than 2,000 arrests and more than 600 injured officers, while the French ministry and agency reports give 2,397 and 997. The same paper is the only one to report that a protester died of a heart attack in Paris; other sources do not mention any deaths.
Minors are among the injured: in Saint-Etienne a 17-year-old lost his right hand to a crowd-dispersal grenade, and in Mulhouse a 17-year-old girl, according to prosecutors, lost an eye.
What did Macron say in his address?
Speaking about the violence in a televised address, Macron said:
“Nothing justifies this, nothing explains this, nothing excuses this. Tonight we all feel anger and shame.”
He also put a question to his own people:
“Looking at those images, we all asked ourselves: what is going through their heads? How can French people do this to France?”
He distinguished protesters with “legitimate demands” from those “who were wrecking, smashing and looting,” and he named “agitators from ultra-left groups, joined by a large number of delinquents” as responsible for the violence. He promised an uncompromising approach, support for damaged businesses and “full transparency” about the conduct of the security forces.
Local authorities will be able to ban certain gatherings if necessary. Macron ordered Interior Minister Laurent Nunez to draw “all necessary lessons,” above all on intelligence work and anticipating events, and said he expects “clear answers.” Part of the opposition is already demanding Nunez’s dismissal.
While the president was speaking, several hundred people gathered on Place de la Republique in Paris, after a call on social media for a rally the authorities had not approved. Police used tear gas and stun grenades and arrested 42 people, and at least five shops around the square were looted.
How are politicians reacting ahead of the elections?
Economy Minister Roland Lescure said in a statement:
“Those who smash things will pay, will repair the damage and will answer for their intent to sow chaos.”
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu blames the “ultra-left” and criminals. Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen judged that Macron’s government is “spending its last reserves, exhausted and disoriented,” and claimed that her rival Melenchon’s party “legitimized violence.”
Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of France Unbowed, who backed the demonstrations, urged the crowds to stay away from looting because it is “contrary to our methods.” He also warned that the country may be heading toward “events that will end up out of control.”
US President Donald Trump responded with a post on social media:
“France is burning! The immigration of people from a completely different world, people with hatred in their hearts, has destroyed this once great country.”
Macron cannot run again in the 2027 election, with voting scheduled for April and May. In Paris, mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said “entire streets have been devastated,” and high school student representative Riad Rani told reporters that the government “is trembling and has every right to tremble, because when the French people are angry, they never back down.”
