France woke up on Sunday in a state of shock after the riots caused a degree of destruction not seen for many years in the country's main cities, starting with the capital, Paris. The Parisian City Council has admitted that law enforcement was overwhelmed, on a day when between 550,000 and 800,000 protesters were counted across the country and there were about 2,000 arrests. The outburst of rage began to brew during student protests a few weeks ago and has quickly spread to other layers of society, who see their standard of living becoming lower and, in parallel, public services becoming weaker. The result is the shocking images of this weekend, with a town hall in flames, that of Limoges, and the looting of luxury shops in the heart of Paris in the face of police helplessness. A police force, by the way, that was also in the spotlight for the excessive use of force against students.

Emmanuel Macron's second term as President of France is turning into an ordeal that, unless significant changes occur, could end with the presidency being handed to Marine Le Pen or someone from her party. The current situation in the country is Kafkaesque. Macron is trying to convince Sébastien Lecornu to reconsider and reverse his decision to resign as Prime Minister just 24 hours after presenting his government and less than a month after taking office. If the resignation is confirmed, Lecornu will be the fifth Prime Minister to resign from Macron's second term. Before him, Élisabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal, Michel Barnier, and François Bayrou have all failed. France is currently immersed in a serious institutional crisis that appears to be entrenched and from which there is no clear way out.