"Tonight we all feel anger and shame. Those who destroyed must pay." Addressing the nation, Emmanuel Macron issued a stark warning to the "casseurs" (protesters) who have ravaged France and returned to action today in Place de la République, amid renewed clashes with riot police and looting. According to a consolidated report from the Ministry of the Interior, approximately 2,400 people were arrested across the Alps on the sidelines of the anti-cost demonstrations, and nearly a thousand police officers and gendarmes were injured, seven of them seriously. The death toll among minors is also rising, with a 17-year-old reportedly losing an eye during clashes between police and protesters yesterday in Mulhouse, an incident under investigation by the IGPN (Italian National Police Inspectorate).

"Nothing justifies violence," Macron warned, urging people "not to confuse the hundreds of thousands" of protesters and their "legitimate demands" with "those who destroyed, broke, and looted." He called on "all parties and trade unions to unambiguously condemn all forms of violence." Macron called for intelligence clarification and transparency. He also denounced "troublemakers belonging to a small far-left group, supported by numerous criminals," and announced a crackdown: prefects will be able to decide on measures to protect cities, "even banning certain demonstrations." This was an implicit message addressed to Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Insoumise (LFI), the radical left-wing party accused of inciting the protests . "All those who today claim that the urgency is to take to the streets have only one goal: to steal the political debate." "Confrontations must not take place in the streets or through violence. They must be conducted with respect, never in disorder or destruction. Our country deserves a good presidential election in six months."

In the ongoing buck-passing, Mélenchon accused Macron of aiming to "wear down" the situation. "We don't lead the popular movement. It leads itself through its unions and its assemblies. For three weeks, LFI deputies and elected officials have been interposing in the face of police violence. This is our role," the left-wing tribune on LCI assures. For her part, Marine Le Pen published a video message on X lasting over eight minutes in which she addresses the country in presidential style, seated at her desk with the Italian flag behind her. The Rassemblement National candidate, the clear favorite in the polls ahead of the vote, points the finger at "an alliance of politicized casseurs and delinquents from the suburbs." But she also denounces "a Macronian power at its limits, exhausted, disoriented, which now seems incapable of doing anything except commenting on its own impotence and, I would even say, decadence."

Even today, in France, which was just beginning to assess the damage, law enforcement officers intervened in Place de la République "to disperse and detain" participants in an "unauthorized" rally. Shortly before Macron addressed his countrymen (he will leave for the Middle East tomorrow as part of diplomatic efforts to reduce fuel costs), reinforcements from the CRS 8 officers, specialized in combating urban violence, were called in.

Calls to continue the demonstration in the capital circulated on social media with the aim of "wearing down the police." Around the statue of Marianne, a symbol of the Republic, protesters held signs with slogans like "Sow misery, reap anger." Objects were thrown at the police, who responded with tear gas before charging the protesters. Firefighters also intervened on the scene to put out the fires. At LCI, the president of the Federation of Commerce and Distribution, Alexandre Bompard, reported that approximately 1,500 shops and businesses had suffered damage, many of which had been looted, amounting to "several hundred million euros," he noted. Macron promised them the government's support: tomorrow, representatives of the trades, retail chains, artisans, and restaurateurs, along with banks and insurance companies, will be received by Trade Minister Serge Papin. Clashes flared up again today in Lyon, while in Limoges at least 7,000 people attended a rally following the arson attack that damaged the town hall, the collapse of whose spire recalled the Notre-Dame fire. Its image has become one of the symbols of France's Black Weekend.

(Unioneonline)

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