Those announcements came after an emergency meeting at the French interior ministry following scenes of widespread chaos that played out across France on Saturday. While President Emmanuel Macron attempted to reassure a worried public with a primetime address Sunday night, the speech was widely panned across the political spectrum as insufficient. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez submitted his resignation in the aftermath of the weekend’s unrest, but Macron refused to accept it.
The government is now scrambling to bat down allegations that it has mismanaged the affair and stop it from snowballing into a sustained movement like the Yellow Jackets of 2018 ahead of the spring presidential election, which far-right leader Marine Le Pen is favored to win.
Saturday’s demonstrations saw teachers and students, who have been blockading schools for weeks demanding more funding for schools, join forces with those upset about the rapidly rising cost of living — and while hundreds of thousands of people marched peacefully, violent incidents were observed in some of France’s largest cities, including Paris.
A website claiming to represent the Yellow Jacket movement launched calls for more protests this coming Saturday, and the country’s main unions are organizing strikes and protests on Nov. 5 in opposition to the government’s proposed budget, which includes €43 billion in savings.
While high schools are currently closed for holidays, some students are still protesting. The Louvre museum was closed due to a strike movement from students at an art history university located inside the palace.
Exactly who was responsible for the weekend’s destruction remains a point of debate. While foreign leaders like U.S. President Donald Trump and Hungary’s Péter Magyar have, without evidence, pinned the rioting on immigrants, Lecornu and the government have pointed the finger at so-called “ultra-left” movements, citing analysis by French intelligence services. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau told TF1 on Monday that she “absolutely [could] not confirm” the government’s analysis based on the profiles of those arrested and placed under investigation in the French capital so far.