France’s riots a decade in the making, analyst says

Saturday’s riots across France were the culmination of a decade of unrest that the government has failed to address, a French analyst said, warning that the violence has drowned out legitimate protests over the cost of living.

A protester walks through tear gars near a barricade on the Champs-Elysees avenue amid clashes during a day of demonstrations against the cost of living and rising fuel prices in Paris as part of nationwide protests called by the "Yellow Vests" movement, joined by French high school and university students, teachers and parents demanding better sch

REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq

Demonstrations against rising living costs turned violent on Saturday, with rioters attacking public buildings and looting shops. Clashes and attempted looting followed on Sunday in Paris and Marseille, where police did not manage to stop all the attacks.

“What we saw on Saturday is a kind of summary, an accumulation of all these episodes of anger and violence to which the executive has been unable to respond over the last ten years”, Blanche Leridon, research director in France at the Institut Montaigne think tank, told Polish Press Agency (PAP) news agency.

She traced the pattern to the “yellow vests” protests of 2018, the unrest after police shot dead 17-year-old Nahel in Nanterre, and vandalism that marred Paris St Germain’s Champions League celebrations in 2025 and 2026.

What set Saturday apart, Leridon said, was the intensity of the violence, including attacks on symbols of the Republic such as the town hall in Limoges.

“These acts of violence completely eclipsed the demands - although they were legitimate - of high school students and all those who demonstrated on Saturday against the high cost of living”, she said.

Unlike earlier episodes, however, President Emmanuel Macron was not the main target, Leridon said. His final term ends in six months, and he lacks the time, legitimacy, parliamentary majority and budget to defuse the crisis, she added. His evening address offered few new pledges and disappointed many, she said.

She urged all political forces to call for calm so that protesters’ demands can be heard “within the republican order” and not be overshadowed by “random extreme violence”.

(jh)

Source: PAP