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France’s interior minister offered to resign. President Emmanuel Macron told him to stay. After a weekend of burning buildings, looted shops and thousands of arrests, the government begins Monday under pressure to explain how protests turned into widespread violence, and what it will do next.
Macron rejected Laurent Nuñez’s resignation offer, the presidential office said Monday, arguing that police and security forces needed continuity in their leadership. He also instructed the minister to develop new ways to tackle looting quickly, Reuters reported.
The unrest followed nationwide demonstrations Saturday over rising living costs, deteriorating public services and conditions in schools. Peaceful marches were accompanied by violent attacks in several cities, with Limoges’ historic town hall set ablaze and businesses ransacked. Further clashes broke out Sunday in Paris and Marseille.
Authorities reported nearly 2,400 arrests and almost 1,000 injured police officers and gendarmes. In a televised address Sunday, Macron condemned the destruction while distinguishing those responsible from peaceful protesters with legitimate demands. He stopped short of announcing a nationwide curfew or state of emergency.
Monday’s response is expected to move from condemnation to the practical business of assessing losses, helping traders reopen and handling the legal fallout.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is scheduled to chair a crisis meeting at 10 a.m. French time, or 11 a.m. in Cyprus, covering business support, insurance and the judicial response. Retailers, hotel and restaurant representatives, banks and insurers are also due to meet at the Economy Ministry to assess the damage. Nuñez is expected in Marseille, one of the cities hit by the violence.
France’s mayors’ association has called for gatherings outside town halls from noon French time to condemn attacks on democratic institutions. Macron has also tasked Lecornu with bringing political parties, unions and local representatives together for talks.
Alongside the immediate security response, the government faces scrutiny over whether it underestimated the scale of the mobilisation. Macron has promised transparency about police preparations following criticism from local leaders.
National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet plans to propose a parliamentary inquiry Tuesday into the violence, the groups involved and the authorities’ response. The proposed investigation would examine how well officials anticipated the unrest and whether the policing operation was adequate.
For readers in Cyprus, the underlying concerns offer a familiar point of connection: the pressure household bills place on wages and the expectation that public services should deliver. Those shared concerns do not mean the two countries face the same circumstances, but they help explain why the story extends beyond the images of destruction.
Macron has acknowledged the anxiety behind the peaceful demonstrations. What remains unclear is how his government will address it. His Sunday address offered no detailed measures on the school conditions and other student grievances that helped drive the protests, leaving Monday’s government meetings to deliver the first concrete steps after the weekend’s violence.
*Source: Reuters, AP News, TV5Monde
