France Arrests 2,000 After Protests Over Public Services

More than 2,000 people faced arrest in France on Saturday, Oct. 17, after demonstrations over living costs and public services gave way to arson, looting and clashes around the country. About 600 police officers, firefighters and paramedics suffered injuries. The marches and violence were separate events: tens of thousands took part in peaceful demonstrations, while other groups attacked shops and public buildings.

Students, workers, parents, teachers and grandparents called for more teachers, school repairs and increased public-service funding. They also protested the high cost of living. Banners said the government wasn’t listening. The marches came after four weeks of street protests and school barricades. On Sunday, hundreds gathered again at Paris’s Place de la République, with a heavy police presence.

Demands met with arrests

Channel 4 reported that more than 500,000 people were thought to have joined the demonstrations. The Irish Times said tens of thousands attended peaceful marches, while violence and looting took place separately in Paris, Bordeaux, Nice and Marseilles. In Saint-Étienne, a crowd-control grenade incident cost a 17-year-old boy his right hand.

Paris police said they arrested a record 855 people. Burnt barricades built from bicycles, bins and other materials remained on the streets on Sunday, alongside smashed shop windows and the wreckage of torched cars. Masked looters broke into shopfronts and took goods. Some appeared to be children; masked adult men also smashed windows. One shoe-shop owner said the violence had nothing to do with peaceful protesters, calling those who broke things and looted organised groups.

Traders’ unions said people had ransacked more than 1,500 shops and businesses, causing tens of millions of euros in damage. The destruction stood alongside protesters’ calls for functioning schools and public services. Demonstrators made those demands heard in public, and the government now faces crisis talks and the possibility of a state of emergency, according to reports.

Public buildings, state failure

Limoges’ 19th-century town hall burned down, and part of its roof collapsed. Mayor Guillaume Guérin said municipal police had turned out in force, but at about 3.30pm they could no longer fight the rioters because they had run out of ammunition. He called it “a colossal failure of the state.” He also said attackers threatened to kill a caretaker and told elected officials they would “burn.”

Masked groups stormed Marseilles city hall and a police station. Socialist mayor Benoît Payan said rioters and looters attacked public buildings “with no real demands” and questioned police tactics. People also targeted buildings elsewhere, including in Lille. In Lyons, Green mayor Grégory Doucet said shop owners felt abandoned. He called on the government to examine what happened, respond politically to peaceful demonstrators’ long-running social demands and investigate the roots of the violence.

The response from the top

President Emmanuel Macron prepared to address the nation on Sunday night. He said there was “no place for violence,” promised punishment for rioters and vandals, and urged people to distinguish protesters from vandals. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the government wouldn’t be “intimidated” and blamed the unrest on the “ultra-left” and criminals. Macron’s centrist government and Marine Le Pen also blamed groups they called “ultra-left.”

Politicians on the left and right called for Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez to resign, arguing that the government seemed surprised by the scale of the violence. Jean-Luc Mélenchon attended Saturday’s peaceful demonstration in Paris and accused the government of organisational failings that had “opened the door to chaos.” Channel 4 reported that the government was expected to declare a state of emergency, while the Irish Times reported crisis talks on Sunday. In Limoges, the mayor said police ran out of ammunition.