President Emmanuel Macron on Monday refused the resignation of his interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, over the weekend riots that swept France — keeping him in the job and ordering him to expose the failures behind the violence instead.
"The interior minister submitted his resignation to the president on Sunday," the Élysée Palace said in a statement. "Given the necessity for continued leadership of law enforcement at this time, the president refused." Macron ordered Nuñez to "take all necessary steps to ensure transparency over the failures in planning and intelligence that led to the violence" and to "put in place new operational methods for security forces" to handle the crisis — acknowledging what he called failures in anticipation and intelligence-gathering before Saturday's demonstrations.
Nuñez, who confirmed on Monday morning radio that he had offered to quit, admitted the police lost control of the situation in several cities. "I take my share of responsibility," he said. "But we must not forget the looters, the vandals and the violent far left."
"I take my share of responsibility. But we must not forget the looters, the vandals and the violent far left." — Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez
The refusal caps a weekend that began with largely peaceful marches — around 550,000 people by the authorities' estimate, 800,000 by the organizers' — called by unions, student organizations and activists seeking to revive the yellow vest movement over rising living costs, fuel prices and the state of schools. The marches tipped into rioting across the country: the town hall in Limoges was set on fire and its roof and tower collapsed, town halls were forced in Marseille and Lille, a tourist information centre was burned in Lyon, and hundreds of businesses were looted or damaged. At least 2,400 people were arrested, and almost 1,000 members of the security and emergency services were reported injured. Looters returned to Paris streets on Sunday night even after Macron's televised warnings, with police making 108 arrests.
In that Sunday evening address, Macron voiced "anger" and "shame" at the scenes — "Nothing justifies it. Nothing explains it. Nothing excuses it" — and promised that "those who destroyed must pay, those who looted must reimburse." He gave prefects and mayors power to ban gatherings where necessary, and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu chaired an interministerial crisis unit on Monday morning to speed help to damaged businesses. Nuñez was expected in Marseille on Monday, where Mayor Benoît Payan has demanded explanations over the security arrangements after attacks on businesses and the city's town hall.
The pressure on the minister has not lifted with the refusal. Police stand accused by protesters of violence of their own — two teenage boys lost hands to stun grenades in the past week and a teenage girl is reported to have lost an eye — and opposition voices are asking how the state was caught unprepared by an announced day of protest. Macron, meanwhile, is pressing ahead with a diplomatic tour of the Gulf starting Monday — Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar — aimed at securing oil and diesel supplies to bring down the fuel prices that helped drive the unrest. For now, the president's answer to the crisis is continuity at the top of the police: the minister stays, under orders to show the public exactly what failed.
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