President Emmanuel Macron addressed France on Sunday night after a weekend of riots, looting and arson, voicing the public's "anger" and "shame" and vowing that the people behind the violence will pay for it. "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 said in the televised address.
The seven-minute speech, delivered from his office at the Élysée Palace at 8 p.m. Paris time, came hours after Macron chaired an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and the ministers concerned. He blamed the "unrestrained violence" on "insurrectionist elements from radical far-left groups, joined by numerous criminals," and warned: "We will be relentless."
"Those who looted will have to pay back for the damage, and those who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable." — President Emmanuel Macron
Macron said he has instructed prefects to work with mayors to protect public buildings and businesses in the coming weeks, including by banning protests when necessary. Lecornu will chair a crisis cell on Monday to speed up aid for the merchants and others hit by the violence. The president defended the police, saying officers had acted professionally, while promising full transparency over allegations of excessive force. "I have asked those responsible to provide information so that this does not happen again," he said.
He also acknowledged the grievances that brought hundreds of thousands into the streets — rising living costs and poor conditions in schools — saying the government will respond to protesters' legitimate demands and help young people build a future. He traced the anger over fuel prices to the conflict launched in the Persian Gulf, "which France did not take part in and whose consequences we are suffering," and said he will travel to the Gulf on Monday morning to secure France's fuel and gas supplies.
The address followed a day of nationwide protests on Saturday that drew about 550,000 people by the authorities' count and about 800,000 by the organizers'. Masked groups set fires and attacked public buildings, including city halls, in several cities; in Limoges, flames engulfed the 19th-century City Hall and its roof collapsed. By Sunday evening, the Interior Ministry's consolidated toll stood at 2,397 people arrested and 997 police officers and gendarmes injured, seven of them seriously — up from the provisional figures Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez had given earlier in the day. One protester died of a heart attack in Paris. On Sunday, hundreds gathered again at the Place de la République in Paris, where riot police dispersed them with tear gas.
Earlier on Sunday, Macron wrote on X that there is "no room for violence in our Republic," promising that those who broke, attacked and looted "will be prosecuted and punished" and expressing the nation's support for law enforcement. Political leaders traded blame ahead of next spring's presidential election: far-right leader Marine Le Pen called Macron's government "exhausted, disoriented and seemingly incapable of doing anything other than commenting on its own powerlessness," while far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon accused Lecornu of "playing with fire" and insisted that "those who share our fight have no business in looting or destruction." Les Républicains' presidential candidate Bruno Retailleau demanded Macron declare a state of emergency "without delay," and National Assembly president Yaël Braun-Pivet announced a parliamentary inquiry into the violence and the security operation.
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