France’s Interior Minister Admits Police Lost Control During Nationwide Protests

France’s Interior Minister, Laurent Nunez, has admitted that police lost control during nationwide protests that descended into widespread violence, looting and arson, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to order an urgent review of the security failures.

Macron rejected Nunez’s resignation on Monday, despite the minister acknowledging serious shortcomings in the government’s preparations and response to the unrest.

Saturday’s demonstrations drew an estimated 500,000 people across France to protest the rising cost of living. However, the rallies were overshadowed by some of the country’s worst violence in years, as town halls and shops were looted and set ablaze.

More than 2,500 people were arrested over the weekend, while nearly 1,000 security personnel were injured. Protesters also suffered injuries, including one demonstrator whose hand was reportedly blown off by a police crowd-control grenade.

Nunez admitted that the scale of the destruction made it impossible to deny the security breakdown, particularly in major cities where hundreds of businesses were targeted.

He also acknowledged that authorities had failed to anticipate the scale of the unrest and deployed insufficient personnel to contain rioters and looters operating on the fringes of the demonstrations. About 60,000 law enforcement officers were deployed nationwide on Saturday.

The minister said he had considered it appropriate to resign in light of the damage, but the presidency confirmed that Macron had rejected his offer, citing the need for continued leadership within the security services.

Instead, Macron directed Nunez to take urgent steps to ensure transparency over the intelligence and planning failures that contributed to the violence. He also ordered the introduction of new operational measures to help security forces confront rioters and prevent further looting.

However, the unrest continued into Sunday. Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said about 30 shops were targeted in the capital, describing the scenes as unbearable.

Nunez reported that around 350 people were arrested in Paris on Sunday and overnight, while Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said more than 2,330 people had been taken into custody nationwide over the weekend. About 70 per cent of those arrested were adults.

The economic damage is also mounting. Alain Di Crescenzo, president of France’s chamber of commerce, estimated that more than 2,000 shops could have been affected, with losses running into hundreds of millions of euros.

In a televised address on Sunday, Macron condemned what he described as uncontrolled violence and said local authorities could prohibit certain rallies in the coming days if necessary.

He stopped short of imposing more drastic measures, including a state of emergency or a curfew.

The latest unrest follows four weeks of high school student protests that also descended into violence at times, intensifying pressure on the French government to restore order and address public anger over the cost of living.