Macron addresses the nation (Image: Getty)
French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed the public’s “anger” and “shame” over nationwide protests against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools that have resulted in around 2,000 arrests.
Speaking in an address to the nation, Mr Macron said: “Those who looted will have to pay back for the damage, and those who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable.”
He pointed to “unrestrained violence” by “insurrectionist elements from radical far-left groups, joined by numerous criminals”.
Meanwhile Donald Trump also shared his views on the unrest. On his social media platform Truth Social, the US president said: “France is burning! The immigration of people from an entirely different world, people with hatred in their hearts, has shattered that once great country. Close your borders and take control, before it is too late!”
Get the latest news from around the world and more
Invalid email
You agree you are 18 or over. We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. You can unsubscribe at any time. More Info.
Mr Macron was speaking after he 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.
Conscription age limit for men as UK told ‘prepare for war’
If World War 3 breaks out, men of these ages could be forced to join the UK’s army and fight in Europe.
Pat McFadden discusses prospect of conscription in 2025
Preparation for WW3 worst-case scenarios could be stepped up after the head of the army called on the UK’s political leaders to start a ‘frank conversation’ with the public about preparing for war.
General Sir Roly Walker told Sky News that ‘every’ citizen will be ‘asked to make sacrifices’ and play their part in the defence of the country.
It comes in the wake of escalation between Russia and Ukraine as the US, unthinkably, appears to be siding with Russia. US President Trump has in the past week urged Ukraine to ‘get a new leader’ after signing a deal with Russia for diesel supplies, and has increasingly blamed the global price of diesel on Ukraine’s refusal to surrender to Putin, rather than the US’ war with Iran.
It’s not something anyone wants to think about, but as tensions escalate around the world, there is a possibility that World War 3 could erupt. Just this past summer, the UK government last year told people to prepare for war on British soil, and is urging better preparedness for conflict across society.
British people could be forced to join the army if WW3 breaks out (Image: Getty)
Assuming tensions continue to ramp up and a new global conflict were to erupt, there are some indicators about what would happen if the UK went to war and needed to introduce conscription, or mandatory military service, whether in a WW3 situation or not.
In WW2, conscription began for men aged between 20 and 22 in 1939, up to six months before the war actually broke out.
The UK Parliament website says: “During the spring of 1939, the deteriorating international situation forced the British government under Neville Chamberlain to consider preparations for a possible war against Nazi Germany. Plans for limited conscription applying to single men aged between 20 and 22 were given parliamentary approval in the Military Training Act in May 1939. This required men to undertake six months’ military training, and some 240,000 registered for service.”
But when war was declared, the age range was immediately widened to any man aged 18 to 41.
It continues: “On the day Britain declared war on Germany, 3 September 1939, Parliament immediately passed a more wide-reaching measure. The National Service (Armed Forces) Act imposed conscription on all males aged between 18 and 41 who had to register for service.”
The only men who weren’t called up were those who were too unfit medically, or who worked in vital industries like baking, farming, and medicine, which were vital to the war effort.
It adds: “Those medically unfit were exempted, as were others in key industries and jobs such as baking, farming, medicine, and engineering.”
By the end of 1941, women and ‘all childless widows’ between the ages of 20 and 30 were called up, while men aged up to 51 were called up for military service. Even those aged 52 to 60 were required to take part in “some form of military service.”
In 2024, Grant Shapps, who at the time was Defence Secretary, said that we are “moving from a post-war to a pre-war world”, and General Sir Patrick Sanders, Britain’s most senior army officer, called for an increase in the size of the army and said that the country needed to increase preparedness for conflict.
It isn’t clear what would happen to those refusing to serve in a potential WW3 scenario, but in WW2, British ‘conscientious objectors’ were put on trial, with some given mandatory jobs to contribute to the war effort in other ways instead.