https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/france-protests-violence-looting/2026/10/18/id/1273194/
France's Macron Vows to Hold Accountable Those Who 'Sought to Bring Down the Republic'
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday expressed the public's โangerโ and โshameโ

over nationwide protests against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools that have resulted in at least 1,800 arrests.
Speaking in an address to the nation,
Macron said: โThose who looted will have to pay back for the damage, and those who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable.โ O RLY? How are you going to hold them accountable, little man???
He pointed to โunrestrained violenceโ by โinsurrectionist elements from
radical far-left groups, joined by numerous criminals.
โ I'm impressed, you must at least have raisin-sized balls to call out the FAR LEFT. This is correct, but again, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT???
French President Emmanuel Macron was set to address the nation Sunday after violent groups clashed with police and looted shops during nationwide protests against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools, with at least 1,800 people arrested across France.
Macron held an emergency meeting with senior government officials, a day after masked groups set fires and attacked public buildings, including city halls, in several cities.
In the central town of Limoges, flames engulfed the 19th-century City Hall, causing its roof to collapse and nearly destroying the building.
Hundreds of protesters gathered again Sunday at the Place de la Rรฉpublique in Paris amid a heavy police presence. Officers used tear gas as tensions flared sporadically in the neighborhood, with small groups of people trying to set bicycles and trash bins on fire.
โThe right to protest is a fundamental right. Deliberately and collectively sowing disorder through violence is not,โ Interior Minister Laurent Nuรฑez wrote on X, citing the looting of hundreds of businesses in cities including Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux.
About 550,000 people took part in protests across France, according to authorities, while organizers put the figure at about 800,000. Demonstrators answered calls from a labor union, student organizations and activists hoping to revive the โyellow vestโ movement, which emerged in 2018 to protest social injustice.
Mass protests in France are often marred by violence on the fringes of otherwise peaceful marches, leading to clashes with police. The arrest tally reported Sunday approached the nearly 2,000 recorded nationwide during a single day of yellow vest protests in December 2018.
One person died of a heart attack, Paris police said in a statement, without providing details. The Paris prosecutorโs office said it was investigating.
Dislodged cobblestones, shattered storefronts and broken glass littered the area around Parisโ Place de la Rรฉpublique on Sunday. Looting and damage were also reported in other tourist and shopping districts.
Paris police said 855 people were arrested in the capital region. The city's prosecutorโs office said 557 remained in police custody.
โI am actually stunned by the level of destruction and violence that was expressed,โ said government employee Marie Peyreigne, 57, wondering what had led to the mayhem.
Parisians inspecting the damage photographed the partially dismantled base of the squareโs central monument, a statue of Marianne, a symbol of France.
Jean Foissy, 74, said he had wanted to join the protest but encountered โa wall of riot police and fires everywhereโ and returned home.
โI was very scared,โ he said. โIโve been a Parisian since I was born, so when I got here, it almost made me want to cry because I find it so bad, it hurts me.โ
Margaux Eude, 26, said she supported the protest movement but โdidnโt think it would escalate like this.โ
โItโs the troublemakers who came, and it breaks my heart because it delegitimizes the movement,โ she said.
Political leaders across the spectrum sought to parlay the fallout of Saturdayโs riots into political capital, looking ahead to next springโs presidential election.
Far-right leader and presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen criticized Macron's centrist government as โexhausted, disoriented and seemingly incapable of doing anything other than commenting on its own powerlessness,โ in a video posted Sunday on social media.
Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mรฉlenchon, for his part, accused Prime Minister Sรฉbastien Lecornu of โplaying with fire,โ alleging that โby banking on degradation, you have only succeeded in uniting all youths and workersโ unions.โ
Mรฉlenchon, who joined the Paris march Saturday, insisted that โmy message is clear: those who share our fight have no business in looting or destruction.โ
U.S. President Donald Trump posted โFrance is burning!โ on his Truth Social platform, apparently linking the unrest to โthe immigration of people from an entirely different world.โ
โClose your Borders and take control, before it is too late!โ he wrote.
French authorities and police have not linked immigrants to the rioting and have repeatedly attributed some of the violence to โradical far-left groupsโ and other people who joined to loot.
โThe scale of the damage is considerable and unprecedented,โ Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grรฉgoire wrote in an open letter. โParis is a city of freedoms, debate and demonstrations. It must remain so. But it must also be a city where everyone can work and run a business safely.โ
Police said groups of hundreds of people formed unauthorized marches across central Paris on Saturday. โBy late afternoon, a new phase began with the arrival of large numbers of people whose sole aim was to steal and loot, taking advantage of the unrest,โ police said.
The mayors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon, the three largest cities, requested a meeting with the prime minister in the coming days โgiven the extent of the damage and the seriousness of the situation.โ
In the southern port city of Marseille, some protesters briefly forced their way into the lobby of City Hall and a group of people wearing hoods and masks damaged a police station. In Lyon, a fire broke out inside a tourist office.
In Limoges, a group of โradical troublemakersโ broke into City Hall while there were elected officials, employees, security personnel and members of the public inside, Maurice Barate, prefect of the Haute-Vienne region, said.
โDespite the presence of so many people, they deliberately set the building on fire. It is an extremely serious and unspeakable act.โ
That's ATTEMPTED MURDER YOU FRENCH PUSSIES!! What will the consequences be......MORE WORDS???!
In eastern France, the Mulhouse prosecutorโs office said an investigation has been opened after a 17-year-old girl was injured during the protests and lost an eye. On Saturday, another investigation was opened after a young protester lost a hand in Saint-Etienne.
The injuries come as police have drawn sharp scrutiny over their use of grenades and other riot-control weapons during recent demonstrations.