Paris experiences new riots while Macron makes a call for de-escalation

BarcelonaAfter Saturday's outburst of rage, tension between police and protesters returned to the streets of several French cities this Sunday. In Toulouse, Lyon, Rennes, or Lille, hundreds of people took to the streets again in protests organized through social media, and in Paris, some of the scenes that turned the streets of the French capital into a battlefield on Saturday were repeated. The epicenter was once again the Place de la République, and there were also renewed looting incidents in some shops, although fewer than during Saturday's events.

In the evening, when chaos had already gripped the country for more than 24 hours, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, addressed the French people in a televised message in which he asserted that the acts of violence "have no justification," and attributed the looting and the harshest clashes to "far-left fringe groups" and "criminals," whom he dissociated from the students who have been protesting for weeks and who, he assured, are raising "legitimate demands." The French president asked professional and trade union organizations to condemn "all forms of violence," and invited them to meetings with the prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, to steer the situation "towards a de-escalation."

The French head of state also announced that the prime minister will convene the main actors of civil society to propose country-wide measures in various areas, especially in education. Furthermore, Macron highlighted that the rise in fuel prices—one of the reasons for the Saturday mobilizations, which went far beyond education—is a consequence of the war in Iran, "a conflict in which France has not taken part." In his appearance, the French leader avoided speaking about police conduct, which has been under scrutiny for weeks due to the repression of student protests.

Macron delivered his speech on a Sunday in which France woke up to the consequences of Saturday's serious riots, clearly visible on several streets in the main cities. "Yesterday the security forces were overwhelmed." This is how the deputy mayor of Paris, Lamia El Aaraje, assessed the police's performance during this weekend's day of protests in the French capital in the morning. "There was a level of violence that I think we have never seen," she added. Between 550,000 and 800,000 people took to the streets of France this Saturday to protest against the rising cost of living, and more than 2,000 people have been arrested over the weekend.

The unrest of thousands of French people has crystallized in the streets across the entire country. "We are demonstrating to defend public services and all the social struggles we have open in France: do not touch the pension system, lower the price of gasoline, stop the elimination of hospital beds...", explains Adri to ARA, a young man who has participated in the student revolt of the last few weeks. It has already been a year since he finished his studies and he now works in the renewable energy sector, and like other people, he has joined the protests to show his rejection of Macronism policies.

On Saturday, the protests were no longer led only by students. Thousands of workers responded to the call initiated on TikTok to protest against the rising cost of living. A call that ended up being, as expected, an outburst of rage in which concrete demands were diluted and brought to the table the frustration and anger of many citizens regarding Macron's political project and the austerity budget that Lecornu's government is working on.

The levels of violence this weekend have led several political leaders and representatives to question the purpose of some scenes. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of France Unbowed, who in recent weeks has encouraged young people to protest, has distanced himself from gratuitous violence: "Those who share our struggle must not resort to vandalism or looting," he wrote on X, in a message in which he also asks to avoid "actions that have no political meaning."

In Lyon, where protesters burned the tourist office, the mayor, Grégory Doucet, of the Green party, has demanded "concrete responses at the highest level of the State", has shown himself "shocked by the violence" and has pointed to the polarization of French society as an element that has added fuel to the protests: "Every political expression feeds and accentuates this polarization, which hinders de-escalation and pacification", he stated.

"Permanent crisis"

A few days ago, the Prime Minister himself, Sébastien Lecornu, acknowledged that the country is going through a "permanent crisis". "Wars, uncertainty about purchasing power and inflation. [...] It is evident that we are going through a moment of fatigue in the country. I perceive it deeply," he asserted. Faced with this situation, Lecornu has promised reforms, but warns that not all of them can be immediate.

His executive is trapped in a dilemma similar to the one faced by other European countries: he promises more investment in public services and, at the same time, must meet the goals of increased military spending required by NATO and bring the fiscal deficit closer to the 3% limit set by the European Union through an austerity budget. And all this with only a few months left until the presidential elections, with Marine Le Pen's far-right leading the polls and the alternative left of La France Insoumise on the rise in the surveys.