PARIS — Emmanuel Macron told France’s prefects on Sunday night to work with mayors on protecting cities, public buildings and shops, up to and including banning gatherings where needed, and asked all political parties and trade unions to condemn the violence without ambiguity. He did it in a televised address at 8 pm, saying the country felt “anger and shame” after Saturday’s rioting.
The France protest arrests that followed Saturday’s marches number nearly 2,400 by the interior ministry’s count, according to Al Jazeera, and more than 2,000 in Euronews’s report of official figures. Police injuries are just as loose. Al Jazeera cited about 1,000 police and gendarmes hurt, Euronews more than 600 police, gendarmes and firefighters, and Macron himself said several hundred police and gendarmes.
He blamed ultra-left groups joined by numerous criminals, said looters must repay and said those who sought to bring down the Republic would answer for it. With the presidential election six months off, he said, anyone telling people the urgent thing is to take to the streets and create disorder has only one aim, to damage the Republic and steal the debate (translated here from the Élysée’s French text).
Accounts of what he decided differ. Euronews reported that Macron announced no additional security measures, only that local authorities would work directly with police. The Élysée’s published text has him telling prefects they may ban certain gatherings when necessary, and says the prime minister will convene parties and unions to obtain clear, public positions.
He did not skip the grievance behind the marches. Macron tied demonstrators’ worry over fuel prices to the conflict in the Persian Gulf, which he said France took no part in but whose consequences it suffers, and said the government had acted with fuel distributors so that those efforts reach prices. He travels to the Gulf on Monday to secure supplies, and Euronews said Kuwait is on the schedule.
The France student protests that began weeks ago get a separate track. Macron said the prime minister will bring together pupils, students, teachers, unions, employers’ groups, local authorities and MPs in the coming days, with work to start this week, and that an education ministry platform has gathered more than 100,000 contributions.
Reaction came from both flanks. Jordan Bardella called the speech “lamentable” and “cowardly”, Al Jazeera reported, while Jean-Luc Mélenchon said the government was “solely responsible” for the destruction. Euronews noted that progressive and Green groups criticised what they saw as excessive police force.
Macron said he asked the government for lessons on intelligence and anticipation so that Saturday cannot be repeated, and expects clear answers from the interior minister. The Élysée’s text sets no date for those answers, names no sum for shopkeepers’ aid and gives no pump price for the fuel steps.
