French Officials Say 1,300 Arrests Made Amid Latest Unrest

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

More than 1,300 people were arrested in another day of protests and riots, after a mass march in Paris a day earlier, according to authorities in France.

The French Interior Ministry said officials responded to 75 fires during Saturday’s riots, and added that 24 shops were looted, reported the AFP news agency.

“Several investigations have been opened,” the ministry said, adding that clashes had died down later on Saturday, the report said.

Overall, 1,314 arrests were made in the weekend protests, the ministry said, according to AFP.

In a statement on Saturday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said he wanted to “salute the exceptional commitment and professionalism of all the regional prefects, prefects, police officers, gendarmes, and firefighters mobilized across France to ensure the safety of our fellow citizens and allow the processions to proceed smoothly.”

“But notably in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Grenoble, Nantes, Angers, Lille, and many other cities, individuals from the ultra-left and radical far-left have once again sought to sow disorder, particularly during the dispersal of the processions,” he continued. “These acts are unacceptable.”

The minister added that he backs police officers and other French security officials who were injured Saturday, but didn’t provide specifics.

“The violence inflicted on the internal security forces, once again, is intolerable,” he said, according to a translation. “They are deliberately targeted because of their uniforms and, above all, because they are the bulwarks of our Republic that these radical militants seek to bring down.”

More than a month of unrest that started with protests in high schools for more funding and teachers is testing President Emmanuel Macron’s authority in the final months of his presidency before voters choose his successor in May 2027.

The stakes are high: The right-wing National Rally party has accused his government of failing to protect the public and urged people to channel their anger into votes for its candidate, Marine Le Pen. On the left, presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon has backed demonstrators and criticized policing that has left some protesters with life-changing injuries.

In the United States, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have said that riots, looting, and violence were the result of mass immigration policies and France and across Europe.

Trump has also warned that if Republicans don’t win in the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 3, then similar chaos could emerge in the United States.

Speaking in a Kansas rally to boost GOP candidates last week, the U.S. president warned that France is “being conquered, looted, and burned to the ground” by migrants who “hate, frankly, the Western civilization itself.”

The president was referring to protests earlier this week that devolved into mayhem, with people setting fires, storming public buildings, smashing shop windows, looting, and clashing with police. It was noted as France’s most violent unrest in years.