Macron to address nation after riots and looting lead to 1,800 arrests

French President Emmanuel Macron was set to address the nation on 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.

Mr 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 on Sunday at the Place de la Republique in Paris amid a heavy police presence.

Officers used tear gas as tensions flared sporadically in the neighbourhood, with small groups of people trying to set bicycles and rubbish bins on fire.

“The right to protest is a fundamental right. Deliberately and collectively sowing disorder through violence is not,” interior minister Laurent Nunez wrote on X, citing the looting of hundreds of businesses in cities including Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux.

About 550,000 took part in protests across France, according to authorities, while organisers counted about 800,000.

Demonstrators answered calls from a labour union, student organisations and activists hoping to revive the “yellow vest” movement, which emerged in 2018 to protest against 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 on Sunday approached the nearly 2,000 recorded nationwide during a single day of yellow-vest protests in December 2018.

More than 500 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters were injured, Mr Nunez said.

One person died of a heart attack, Paris police said in a statement, without providing details. Paris prosecutors’ office said it was investigating.

Around Paris’ Place de la République on Sunday morning, dislodged cobblestones, shattered storefronts and broken glass marked the aftermath of the events.

Looting and damage were reported around the square and in some other tourist and shopping areas in the city centre.

Paris police said 855 people were arrested in the capital region. The city’s prosecutor’s office said 557 remained in police custody.

“I am actually stunned by the level of destruction and violence that was expressed,” Marie Peyreigne, a 57-year-old government employee said, wondering what led to the mayhem.

Inspecting the damage, many Parisians took photos of the partially dismantled base of the central monument at Place de la Republique — a statue of Marianne, a symbol of France.

Jean Foissy, 74, said he wanted to join the protest but found “a wall of riot police and fires everywhere”, and went back home.

“I was very scared,” he said. “I’ve 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.”

Margaux Eude, 26, said she supports the protest movement but “didn’t think it would escalate like this”.

“It’s the troublemakers who came, and it breaks my heart because it delegitimises the movement”, she said.

Political leaders across the spectrum sought to parlay the fallout of Saturday’s riots into political capital, looking ahead to next spring’s presidential election.

Far-right leader and presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen lashed out at far-left rival Jean-Luc Melenchon, who joined the Paris march.

“Looting, ransacking, destroying and attacking law enforcement: Rioters have again spoiled the October 17 demonstrations for the protection of purchasing power,” Ms Le Pen wrote on X.

Her running mate, Jordan Bardella, said on X that “if the silent majority of French decide it, we will re-establish order for the long-term”.

Mr Melenchon, for his part, traded barbs with the prime minister, accusing Mr Lecornu of “playing with fire” and alleging that “by banking on degradation, you have only succeeded in uniting all youths and workers’ unions”.

Mr Melenchon said that “my message is clear: those who share our fight have no business in looting or destruction”.

US President Donald Trump posted “France is burning!” on his Truth Social platform, apparently linking the unrest to “the immigration of people from an entirely different world”.

“Close your borders and take control, before it is too late!” he wrote.

French authorities and police have not linked immigrants to the rioting and have repeatedly attributed some of the violence to “radical far-left groups” and other people who joined to loot.

Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire announced the creation of an emergency unit to support businesses assess the damage.

“The scale of the damage is considerable and unprecedented,” Mr Gregoire wrote in an open letter.

“Paris 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.”

Police said groups numbering from several hundred to more than 1,000 people formed unauthorised marches across central Paris on Saturday.

“By 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,” police said.

The mayors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon, the country’s three largest cities, requested a meeting with the prime minister in the coming days “given the extent of the damage and the seriousness of the situation.”

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 “radical troublemakers” 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.

“Despite the presence of so many people, they deliberately set the building on fire. It is an extremely serious and unspeakable act,” he said.

In eastern France, the Mulhouse prosecutor’s 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.