Macron condemns French riots after nearly 2,400 arrests in a single day

French President Emmanuel Macron went on television on Sunday to condemn a wave of rioting and looting that accompanied protests over the cost of living across France. The Times of Israel reported, citing the French interior ministry, that nearly 2,400 people were arrested on Saturday and that almost 1,000 police officers and gendarmes were hurt, seven of them seriously.

Speaking from the Elysee Palace, Macron described the violence as "unbridled" and said that "those who destroyed" would have to answer for it. Ynet reported that he called the events a disgrace, said the rioters had wanted to bring down the republic, and blamed far-left elements and criminals. Even as he spoke, according to Ynet, new unrest was under way, with looting and confrontations between police and young people in Paris and an attempt by 50 masked people to force their way into a Lacoste store in Lyon.

What Macron said and did not announce

The Elysee Palace is the official residence and office of the French president. In his address, Macron said that everyone felt anger and shame that night, and drew a line between protesters with what he called "legitimate demands" and those who had smashed and looted, according to The Times of Israel. He said security would be stepped up and that lessons would be drawn from the way police had handled the unrest. The same report noted that he did not announce a state of emergency or a curfew.

A Ynet alert summarised his message as acknowledging that hundreds of thousands of people had justified grievances, while insisting that far-left rioters and criminals had been among them. The Jerusalem Post headlined his remarks as a condemnation of "shocking" scenes and quoted him pointing to an "insurrectionist far-left". Earlier that day, chairing what the Post described as an interministerial crisis meeting at the palace, Macron had already been coordinating the government response.

The Hebrew-language channel Abu Ali Express published a longer rendering of the speech in which, by its account, Macron tied rising fuel prices to the war in Iran, saying some people felt with good reason that fuel had become too expensive. That account is the only one among these reports to attribute the Iran link to the president, and it framed the demonstrations as a protest by high school students, a characterisation the other outlets did not use.

The scale of the damage

The Times of Israel described Saturday's events as among the worst urban violence France has seen in years, and said the rioting took place on the margins of nationwide protests over living costs. A photograph published by The Jerusalem Post showed clashes in Marseille, in southern France, on October 17, 2026, ahead of a demonstration against the high cost of living, indicating that tensions had been building before Saturday.

Gendarmes, mentioned in the interior ministry figures, belong to France's national gendarmerie, a police force with military status that operates alongside the civilian national police.

On the economic toll, Abu Ali Express reported that Alexandre Bompard, head of the Carrefour supermarket group, estimated that 50 Carrefour branches had been looted, causing damage worth tens of millions of euros. The same report said about 1,500 businesses of various kinds had been damaged across France, with combined losses of at least hundreds of millions of euros. These estimates appear in only one of the reports.

Political pressure on the government

According to Ynet, Macron, whom it described as the outgoing president, had faced accusations of failing to act as the unrest spread, and his address came only after that criticism mounted. Opposition leader Marine Le Pen responded by telling him he had run out of steam and lost control, while her close ally Jordan Bardella said France had been humiliated, Ynet reported. The outlet added that there were calls for a parliamentary commission of inquiry and for the interior minister to resign.

The unrest also drew comment from abroad. The Jerusalem Post reported that US President Donald Trump blamed immigration for the riots, under a headline quoting the phrase "France is burning". Ynet's report also referred to disorder returning in Italy, though the available text did not give details.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports explains in detail what triggered the protests or which specific prices or policies demonstrators were targeting, beyond the broad description of cost-of-living grievances. The interior ministry figures cover Saturday; no report gives arrest or injury numbers for Sunday's renewed clashes in Paris and Lyon. The reports do not name the interior minister facing calls to resign, and none says whether any civilians were seriously hurt or killed.

The damage estimates from the Carrefour chief are reported only by Abu Ali Express and have not been confirmed by other outlets here. Likewise, the link Macron reportedly drew between fuel prices and the war in Iran appears in only one account, and the reports do not set out what concrete security measures the government will take beyond the president's general pledge.