France unrest: 2,400 arrests and a test of Macron's policing

President Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation from the Élysée Palace after Saturday's cost-of-living protests turned violent across France, saying "nothing justifies" the destruction and drawing a distinction between protesters with "legitimate demands" and those who "destroyed, smashed and looted."

The interior ministry reported about 2,400 arrests and roughly 1,000 police and gendarmerie officers injured, seven seriously. Public buildings were burned, including the town hall in Limoges, and hundreds of shops were destroyed or looted. Clashes occurred in Paris, Marseille and other cities. Disorder continued in Paris on Sunday.

Some 550,000 demonstrators had taken to the streets for largely peaceful protests against rising fuel prices, the cost of living and deteriorating public services, including schools. The scale of the peaceful participation is central to the political argument now underway: Macron's framing separates that majority from the violence, but his opponents say the government's policing response is itself the failure.

Macron stopped short of a state of emergency or curfew. He said local authorities could ban certain rallies if necessary — a measure that would test how far the government is willing to go in restricting assembly ahead of elections.

Political opponents have called for the interior minister's resignation and suggested the government is weakened. The arrest and injury figures are now part of that debate, not just a policing statistic.

The immediate question is not whether the violence was justified — Macron has said it was not, and the record of burned buildings and looted shops supports that. The question is where his government draws the line between protest and disorder, and whether banning rallies and holding the interior minister in place will calm the situation or deepen the confrontation.

France is facing one of its worst bouts of urban violence in years. How Macron balances civil liberties, public order and the protesters' cost-of-living grievances will shape the political landscape before voters next go to the polls.