French President Emmanuel Macron, in a Sunday address, called on parties and trade unions to unequivocally condemn the violence from Saturday’s demonstrations on 17 October. He also pledged to hold those responsible to account and to examine how the security forces acted.
Macron addressed the nation on Sunday, 18 October, at 8 p.m. As France 24 reports, he said that tonight everyone feels “anger and shame.” He stressed that a distinction must be drawn between protesters with legitimate demands and those who destroyed, vandalised and looted.
Accountability and questions for the security services
According to CNN, citing an AP translation, the president said that those who looted will have to pay for the damage, and that those responsible for attempts to “overthrow the Republic” will face consequences. Already on Saturday evening he had written on social media that the perpetrators of attacks on prefectures, shops and town halls would be pursued and punished.
Macron also promised “full transparency” regarding the actions of the security forces. He asked Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez to “draw all the necessary lessons,” especially regarding the detection and anticipation of threats, and said he expects “clear answers” (France 24). This is a response to criticism that the police were insufficiently prepared.
Meeting with mayors and talks with unions
According to CNN and Reuters, the president is due to meet mayors on Monday about public safety. He also asked the government to convene, this week, students, teachers and union members, among others, to discuss “concrete proposals.” Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu will chair an interministerial meeting on Monday at 10 a.m. (local time), according to The Week.
The protests concerned, as The Week writes, rising living costs and conditions in schools. The Interior Ministry estimated the number of participants at about 550,000, while organisers put it at about 800,000. Violence was reported in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Rennes, Strasbourg, Nice and Limoges, among other places.
Arrest toll rises
Nuñez announced on X on Sunday that more than 2,000 people had been arrested and more than 600 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters were injured. According to a later ministry statement, cited by France 24, nearly 2,400 people are now detained and about 1,000 officers injured. We previously reported the earlier figures in our article on the arrest and injury toll announced by the Interior Ministry; the figures have since been updated.
Nuñez and Lecornu attributed the start of the violence to “radical far-left groups,” which masked groups engaged in looting joined (The Week). Marine Le Pen, as “Rzeczpospolita” writes, blames Macron himself for the chaos.
What it means
For Poles travelling to France in the coming days, it is important to note that Monday and the following days may bring further decisions by the authorities on security in the cities where the riots occurred. We did not find detailed warnings for tourists in the sources; current communications are published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the “France” section on gov.pl. As of publication, parties and union federations had not issued a joint statement in response to the president’s appeal.
Komentarze