France was in a state of shock on Sunday, as citizens woke to streets littered with shattered glass and images of burned-out government buildings after the country’s largest demonstrations in years devolved into riots and looting.
The unrest on Saturday — which led to some 1,200 arrests — caused widespread damage to several symbols of the state, including a 19th-century city hall in Limoges, a town in central France renowned for its porcelain, that was largely destroyed in a nighttime arson attack.
Rioters attacked city halls from Lille in northern France to Marseille in the south, where masked infiltrators broke into the local government headquarters and tipped over a bust of Marianne, a symbol of the French Republic. Fires also destroyed a tourist office in Lyon.
On Sunday, that violence had given way to a political blame game. Government officials accused the far left of stirring up the unrest, and a left-wing leader blamed the government.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu placed the blame for the chaos squarely on a far-left party, France Unbowed. The leader of that party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, stands a chance of making the runoff in next year’s presidential election to succeed President Emmanuel Macron.
Mr. Lecornu accused the leaders of France Unbowed of sowing distrust in the police among student protesters all week. He also said that intelligence suggested that the earliest rioters — who started attacking riot police and government buildings before official protests were set to begin — were members of the “ultra-left.”
“Behind all this, there is obviously a political battle to wage,” Mr. Lecornu said, adding that the country was at “the point of no return.”
“It’s also time to choose sides,” he said. “Either you are in the camp of the Republic, and therefore of law enforcement — and of those who protect people and property and enforce the laws — or you are on the side of the rioters.”
In response, Mr. Mélenchon blamed the government. He said on social media that Mr. Lecornu was “responsible for the chaos” — due to “incompetence or a worst-case strategy to create a party of order that would make people forget his failure in public finances.”
Mr. Lecornu did not respond to that allegation, but had earlier urged Mr. Mélenchon to call out the perpetrators of looting and violence.
Mr. Mélenchon had offered a qualified condemnation of the violence, stating that “those who share our fight have no place in looting, in pillaging.
“Regardless of the “responsibilities of those in power,” he said on Saturday night, the left “must refuse to take part in actions without political meaning and contrary to our methods.”
Protest organizers had hoped that the demonstrations on Saturday would lead to a convergence between the student demonstrations that have roiled France since September demanding better school conditions, and a broader social movement that addressed a wider array of concerns, including the rising cost of living.
What emerged on Saturday seemed like a split-screen event, with marches occurring peacefully in one part of a city and groups of black-clad agitators sparring with police and causing damage in other areas.
Then, as things unraveled, opportunist rioters joined in, exploiting the chaos, government officials said.
In Paris, the police said they were confronted first by “wildcat marches” and violent groups of 500 to 1,000 people. The situation changed in the late afternoon, the Paris police prefecture said in a statement on Sunday morning, with “the massive arrival of individuals whose sole objective was to commit theft and looting, taking advantage of the disorder to act.”
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