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French President Emmanuel Macron warned Monday that next Saturday would be another "high-risk day" of France protests, saying march routes would stay outside city centers to protect public order.
Speaking in Marseille, where protesters briefly stormed city hall on Oct. 17, Macron also acknowledged authorities had "not anticipated at all" the violence of that day and signaled "significant announcements" after talks with students.
"We know that next Saturday is still a high-risk day. We know that Nov. 5 will see a day of national mobilization involving all the trade unions, and there are also the other Saturdays ahead," Macron told reporters.
He said it was "not inevitable" that unrest would continue every Saturday and that authorities would keep protecting property, people and city centers.
"We had not anticipated that so many far-left groups would mobilize very early in the morning, in a highly unusual manner. We had also not anticipated that, beyond the mobilization of the far left, criminal elements would join in. As a result, police forces were not deployed in sufficient numbers," Macron said.
"We are maintaining the Republic and public order today without a state of emergency," he said after meeting Marseille Mayor Benoit Payan, while adding that it would not be "a ban or a taboo" if “things were to deteriorate."
"What we are experiencing today is not comparable with what we experienced in the summer of 2023," Macron said, referring to riots after the death of Nahel Merzouk.
He described "a social and political mobilization that has roots in the high school mobilization on the one hand, and in the high cost of living on the other."
Macron said he had asked the government to respond to the "legitimate demands at the root of this social movement." Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu was set to meet high school representatives Monday.
He signaled "significant announcements and progress aimed at bringing about changes now and launching initiatives in the very short term."
"We will do the same with trade unions and employers’ organizations, and so all of this must gradually return to normal, with respect," Macron said.
"Social media are damaging our democracies because they fuel polarization, create a kind of shock and paralysis in the face of scenes of violence," Macron said.
"They were used, particularly on Oct. 17, to bring young people and older people to places where criminal acts, attacks and looting were taking place," he said.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 1,435 people were arrested during Saturday’s France protests, "including more than a hundred for possession of improvised weapons," broadcaster RMC/BFMTV reported.
"The day was under control, there were no serious incidents. Nonetheless, we observed a very high level of violence against internal security forces," Nunez said, citing 267 injured police and gendarmes. About 150 protesters were injured, three "quite seriously," in Toulouse, Reims and Clermont-Ferrand, he said, adding that the police oversight body IGPN is investigating.
The ministry said 24 businesses were looted Saturday, compared with 1,522 on Oct. 17.
Nunez rejected accusations from France Unbowed that police shielded far-right activists.
"We protect no one," he said, adding that far-right groups in Nice, Montpellier and Nancy came "mainly to attack the ultra-left movement, as they usually do."
Prosecutors opened an investigation in Rouen after a video showed nationalist activists beating a man on the ground, chanting "the street, France, belongs to us." In Grenoble, prosecutors are investigating images of a man brandishing a weapon outside a supermarket.
Social democratic presidential candidate Raphael Glucksmann said he has stayed away from marches because of a "campaign of harassment" by France Unbowed, which denied the claim.
"Why me? Why do they target me? Why don’t they target Gabriel Attal or Edouard Philippe?" Glucksmann told TF1. "For a very simple reason, because we are rebuilding the democratic left, because we will defeat Mrs. Le Pen and bring the left back to power, and they can’t stand it."
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