The Telegraph - 1.3M Followers - France’s riots are the death throes of Macronism - Story by Henry Samuel • 1d • 5 min read

 The Telegraph

1.3M Followers

France’s riots are the death throes of Macronism

Story by Henry Samuel • 1d • 5 min read

The aftermath of protests and looting in Paris - Reuters/Benoit Tessier

On Sunday morning, the City of Love resembled a City of Hate.

Trucks and cars lay smouldering, bus shelters were smashed, and mounds of melted bins and Lime bikes littered the typically picturesque avenues and boulevards.

Most shocking were the dozens of shops where metal shutters had been prised open, window panes smashed, and stores looted to the last item.

Similar scenes of chaos had played out in Marseille, Lyon and other big cities. In Limoges, the 19th-century bell tower came crashing down in flames in an eerie reminder of the Notre-Dame blaze. This time, however, the damage was deliberate.

“It’s a war zone,” lamented Mehmet, a retired tailor of Turkish origin who has lived in Paris “since de Gaulle was still alive”. “We’re the ones who’ll end up paying for all this. It’s unacceptable. France isn’t what it used to be.”

Destruction on the streets of Paris a day after national protests - Reuters/Benoit Tessier

It all started festively enough.

Parents and teachers marched with pupils and students manning carnival-like floats – a huge Trojan horse passed by my front door – as Yellow Vests and unions joined the fray to protest against rising living costs and for “social justice”.

It is arguably uplifting to seeing your children peacefully demonstrate for a better world and vent their anger at a tide of existential threats from war to climate change and AI.

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It is tragic to see their genuine concerns eclipsed by mindless anarchy.

As the government has said, it was a “miracle” no one died. In fact, two did, one from a seizure during the Paris protest, a second falling from atop the Arc de Triomphe.

The police, who have been the main butt of young protesters’ fury for their alleged brutality, were completely overwhelmed and at times absent.

Benoit Payan, Marseille’s mayor, asked why he had just one company of national riot police for a city 2.5 times the area of Paris. It felt almost as if officers had vanished to teach France a lesson.

The Left and Greens called for Laurent Nunez, the interior minister, to resign.

Boutiques, banks and independent shops were looted during the protests - The Press Association/Lucy North

Boutiques, banks and independent shops were looted during the protests - The Press Association/Lucy North

Some foreign leaders gleefully weaponised the chaos.

“France is burning! The immigration of people from an entirely different world, people with hatred in their hearts, has shattered that once great country,” Donald Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Close your Borders and take control, before it is too late!”

Iran and Hungary followed suit.

A protester waving a French flag walks past a fire during protests in Marseille - AFP via Getty Images/THIBAUD MORITZ

Shell-shocked, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, broke his silence to issue a frankly laughable promise that all masked and black-clad looters would be “pursued and punished”.

Sebastien Lecornu, the French president’s embattled prime minister, called on the French to choose sides between “the Republic or the rioters”.

But it was another political choice that was on most French people’s minds.

Mr Macron has only six months left in the Elysée Palace before his second and final presidential term ends.

One wonders whether such a fractured country has the patience to wait that long to choose his replacement.

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While France, and the wider world, waits to see if the country jolts to the Right or Left, it is unlikely that whoever takes the reins in April will be as equivocal as the incumbent leader.

The French president addressed the nation on Sunday night, saying that public gatherings would be banned to halt rioting if necessary.

He pledged that there would be harsh consequences for the “criminals” who were looting and burning, and said they must “never” be confused with the peaceful protesters. “They will answer for what they have done to the Republic,” he added.

But the current revolt has stripped the 48-year-old centrist of his last fig leaf of domestic political capital since his disastrous decision to call snap elections in 2024.

In the ensuing period, France has lurched like a headless cockerel from one domestic crisis to another, run by a minority government barely able to pass a budget.

The city hall in Limoges was destroyed by fire during protests - AFP via Getty Images/PASCAL LACHENAUD

With the costs of the riots running into the “hundreds of millions” and the state more cash-strapped than ever, the age-old Gallic reflex of whipping out the cheque book to quell unrest – such as during the 2018 Yellow Vest revolt – is no longer an option.

In its defence, the French government plaintively asserts that education spending has risen during the Macron presidency, including by around 5 per cent in real terms since 2019. It is proposing a further €1.2bn (£1bn) increase next year.

However, it also plans to abolish almost 1,600 permanent teaching posts, while pension costs consume nearly a third of the education ministry’s budget. Universities have fared worse, with funding per student falling sharply since Mr Macron took office.

But even if the government could stump up more cash, the demands are now so diffuse that forking out more is unlikely to make much difference.

French riot police clashed with protesters in Paris on Saturday - Reuters/Abdul Saboor

Deprived of the normal levers, Mr Lecornu pointed the finger squarely at the “extreme Left”, saying it was no coincidence that groups had targeted “centres of power” on Saturday. Many protesters took up social media calls to storm the parliament and the Elysée Palace – to no avail.

“Clearly this is a political manoeuvre,” Mr Lecornu claimed.

The unnamed culprit is Jean-Luc Mélenchon, firebrand leader of the Leftist France Unbowed.

Polls suggest the 75-year-old putative revolutionary could reach the presidential run-off against the National Rally’s Marine Le Pen next May – even if the latest place him on a par with Raphael Glucksmann, the Socialist, and Edouard Philippe, the centre-Right former prime minister.

Mr Mélenchon has shamelessly blown hot and cold, accusing the government and police of being the cause of all the damage before issuing a late-night call for calm, almost as an afterthought. In his defence, many pupils and students say he is the only one who has stuck up for them.

A Marseille street covered in debris a day after nationwide protests against the high cost of living - AFP via Getty Images/Thibaud MORITZ

The Le Pen camp, meanwhile, hopes to capitalise on the unrest with a pledge to restore order.

Ms Le Pen said the troubles showed that Mr Macron’s administration was “running on fumes, exhausted and disoriented”.

“We are experiencing a profound crisis of trust and authority, which poses a threat to democracy,” said Ms Le Pen, who leads opinion polls ahead of the election.

Commentators point to the May 1968 mass protests that Charles de Gaulle decried as “la chienlit” (bed defecation, in other words, bedlam). In their wake, the French Right won a huge parliamentary majority.

“Macron’s 10 years end in absolute chaos. The Left is guilty, Macronistes are accomplices. Vote!” headlined RN spin doctors in a social media edit of the worst of the violence.

Mr Macron may be a busted flush. But to claim Mr Mélenchon – who is gunning for young voters and the high-immigrant banlieues – is somehow controlling this mayhem is fanciful. He is merely fanning the flames of a far wider anger smouldering in this combustible and divided nation.

As one editorialist put it: “The chaos in the streets reflects the chaos in [French] heads.”

The question is whether any presidential candidate is in a position to address it.

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