BRUSSELS ― France was reeling Sunday after mass protests over rising living costs spiraled into riots and looting, leaving cities around the country littered with debris, shattered storefronts and charred buildings.
With public anger broiling over the policies of President Emmanuel Macron’s administration, more than half a million people took to the streets for demonstrations on Saturday before the violence broke out and left a trail of destruction from Lille in the north to Marseille in the south.
It was some of France’s worst unrest in years. Police detained at least 2,000 people, officials said Sunday as the country woke up to images of wrecked government buildings.
Among the most shocking was the charred shell of a historic town hall in Limoges, which was consumed by fire in an arson attack, its spire collapsing into bright flames in the night.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu accused the “ultra left” of stoking Saturday’s violence ahead of a presidential election next spring. Lecornu said opportunist “criminals” had also joined in “to loot and destroy,” and vowed that the government would not be intimidated.
“Behind this, there is obviously a political battle to wage,” he told reporters. “We are at a point of no return.”
As Macron nears the end of his second and final term, France is riven by bitter political fragmentation and confronting the unpopular task of cutting public spending to avert financial disaster.
The mayhem follows weeks of student protests over underfunded schools, which have converged with broader discontent over planned budget cuts, high energy prices and other grievances with the government.
In a sign of mounting voter discontent with the centrist-conservative coalition, Marine Le Pen of the hard-right National Rally party is leading in the polls and Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the hard-left Unbowed France party is gaining momentum.
Saturday’s protests, France’s largest in years, began with marches that drew nearly 800,000 people, including students, public workers and others around the country, according to French labor union CGT.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 550,000 people took part, including 110,000 in Paris, before several of the rallies gave way to nighttime riots.
Clashes erupted between aggressive groups on the sidelines and police officers who unleashed tear gas. Masked rioters vandalized banks and shops in Paris, ransacked a department store in Bordeaux and set the city tourism office ablaze in Lyon.
In Paris, unrest burst forth in the late afternoon, with the arrival of “individuals whose sole objective was to steal and loot, taking advantage of the disorder,” the capital’s police said.
Lamia El Aaraje, deputy mayor of Paris, spoke of “a level of violence never seen before.”
“We witnessed scenes of methodical looting that have nothing to do with social demands, nothing to do with the thousands of demonstrators who marched peacefully throughout the afternoon,” she told FranceInfo on Sunday. “It’s absolutely tragic.”
In Limoges, a town in central France known for making porcelain, the 19-century town hall was set on fire while some staffers and people were still inside, authorities said. Nineteen people were detained over incidents in the city.
In the city of Marseille, on France’s southern coast, footage showed a group of people breaking into and defacing the city hall. They were later dispersed by law enforcement.
Le beffroi de la mairie de Limoges, en flammes, s’est effondré pic.twitter.com/tu9UBPS7iI
— BFM (@BFMTV) October 17, 2026
The violence has spurred debate about what constitutes legitimate protest in France, a country with a long history of civil action.
Macron, who is set to address the nation Sunday night, pledged that anyone attacking businesses, police and public buildings would be “prosecuted and punished.” He blamed unnamed “sowers of chaos, who seek only to destroy our institutions and prevent those who peacefully express their demands from doing so.”
Politicians and officials quickly shifted into finger-pointing mode on Sunday.
Le Pen, signaling that Mélenchon is her chief rival, posted on social media that “legitimate social demands have once again been taken hostage by the extreme left.”
Government officials have also blamed Mélenchon, who has supported the protests while seeking to distance himself from the violence.
Mélenchon fired back that the prime minister was “responsible for the chaos” either out of “incompetence” or efforts to “create a party of order to make people forget his failure in public finances.”
Although France’s government and far right have focused blame on what they describe as the radical left, the Trump administration has highlighted the French chaos to support its anti-immigrant agenda.
President Donald Trump again blamed migration on Sunday as he had for previous protests. “France is burning!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Close your Borders and take control, before it is too late!”
Vice President JD Vance called on U.S. voters to take note ahead of the midterm elections next month. “This is the future congressional Democrats seek for your country,” he posted.
At the heart of France’s woes, however, is the painful tension between demands for better living conditions and a need to cut spending.
The CGT union said Saturday’s escalation followed the government’s “stubborn refusal to respond” to people’s demands, citing rising energy prices and austerity plans that would affect pensions and wages.
As the government tries to control record debt, the anxiety on the streets and in financial markets is dominating the presidential race. While all of France’s main candidates profess to have the answer, none are keen to campaign on slashing social benefits — a move some experts and officials say is unavoidable.
The turmoil in France began to bubble up last month as government borrowing costs surged while students protests gained traction, and later the backing of influential labor unions.
Before Saturday, hundreds of students, teachers and officers had been injured, as the school strikes fueled wider frustrations and some descended into confrontations with police.
In Paris, some people have worn safety vests echoing the yellow vest anti-government protests, which grew into a movement against social and economic inequality roiling France between 2018 and 2020.
The post France reels from unrest, with public buildings burned and hundreds detained appeared first on Washington Post.
