By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
French President Emmanuel Macron began a three-day diplomatic tour of the Persian Gulf on Monday, Oct. 19, hours after rejecting his interior minister’s resignation over security failures during nationwide riots that devastated businesses, damaged government buildings and overwhelmed police forces.
Macron arrived in Kuwait on Monday morning, where he was welcomed by Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. His itinerary also includes the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar, with discussions expected to focus on energy security and fuel supplies amid disruptions associated with the conflict involving Iran.
According to Le Monde, Macron is traveling with senior executives from French energy companies TotalEnergies and Engie as his administration seeks to reduce pressure on domestic fuel prices.
The trip follows Saturday’s demonstrations, which brought more than 550,000 people into French streets and escalated into extensive violence in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Limoges and other cities.
The Interior Ministry reported 2,397 arrests and 997 injured police officers and gendarmes, including seven seriously wounded, in connection with Saturday’s unrest. The number of arrests subsequently increased as authorities continued operations.
The violence included widespread looting, assaults on officers and arson attacks against public buildings, including the historic Limoges City Hall, where a fire caused extensive structural damage.
Macron condemned what he called “unbridled” violence during a televised address Sunday evening, distinguishing peaceful demonstrators from radical left-wing groups and criminals accused of exploiting the protests.
He acknowledged failures in security preparations but defended his government’s response, promising investigations and additional measures against those responsible.
His address and subsequent departure prompted criticism from political opponents who questioned his leadership during the domestic emergency. Breitbart News reported that critics also faulted Macron for not discussing immigration as a possible contributing factor.
The government has attributed much of the violence to far-left militants and looters, while the causes and organization of individual attacks remain under investigation.
The political crisis intensified Monday when Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed that he had submitted his resignation following the breakdown in public order.
According to Le Monde’s live coverage, Nuñez offered to step down Sunday, accepting responsibility for inadequate security preparations.
The minister reportedly called for a “new strategy” to prevent future outbreaks of violence.
Macron refused the resignation, with the Élysée Palace citing the “need for continuity in the leadership of law enforcement in the current context,” according to statements reported by BFMTV and Euronews.
Speaking on France Inter, Nuñez acknowledged that police had lost control in several cities.
“I am responsible for everything that happens on the ground,” he said.
The minister explained that authorities had anticipated approximately 200,000 demonstrators but faced crowds exceeding 550,000.
“The security measures we put in place were, in some places, disproportionate to the number of participants and demonstrators in normal marches, but also to the number of vandals, looters, and far-left activists who caused the marches to degenerate,” Nuñez said, according to reporting cited by RTL.
In additional remarks reported by France Info, he described Saturday as “extremely difficult to manage” for law enforcement.
“Now, the issue at hand is ensuring that this violence does not happen again,” he said. “We obviously need to do a better job of anticipating mobilizations as they occur.”
“In certain major cities, when you have hundreds of stores looted, you can’t look at shop owners and say we haven’t lost control,” Nuñez added.
The Interior Ministry plans to increase police mobility and improve intelligence gathering ahead of further demonstrations. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is overseeing emergency discussions on security, economic assistance and measures to prevent renewed unrest.
Meanwhile, opposition politicians are demanding more extensive action.
Nice Mayor Éric Ciotti called for France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office to investigate militant organizations he accused of coordinating attacks on republican institutions.
Ciotti previously warned on X that what he described as “Islamo-Leftism” threatened France’s political institutions.
“The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office needs to step in and track down these far-left groups—these coordinated, organized structures that seek to attack the institutions of the Republic,” Ciotti told BFMTV.
“It’s clear that institutions were targeted—not just in other cities, but here in our own city as well. They attempted to attack the town hall, for instance, and they also targeted police stations,” he said.
Ciotti, who leads the Union of the Right for the Republic party, characterized the unrest as a coordinated movement involving militant left-wing organizations, Islamists and criminal groups.
“We are facing a red fascism, a French Intifada, a form of insurrection where Islamists, Antifa members, rioters, and looters—remotely controlled by the far left with terrorist aims—converge,” he wrote.
He also highlighted what he described as the prevalence of Palestinian flags at demonstrations.
Calling for action against Antifa and other militant organizations, Ciotti declared: “We must pursue these groups to the very end, and any associations that support them should be dissolved.”
He proposed emergency detention facilities, tougher punishment for assaults on police and restrictions on certain public benefits for families of convicted rioters.
Ciotti also urged authorities to prohibit a demonstration scheduled for Nov. 5, arguing that another large gathering could produce additional violence.
The allegations concerning coordinated Islamist involvement and terrorist objectives remain unproven. Authorities have not publicly established that the disturbances constituted a terrorist conspiracy.
Former Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, a presidential candidate from the center-right Republicans party, called on Macron to declare a state of emergency.
“It is the authority of the State that is being challenged, everywhere, all at once,” Retailleau wrote on X.
“Faced with diffuse violence, simultaneous across the entire territory and likely to continue night after night, ordinary means are no longer sufficient.”
Retailleau argued that emergency powers would permit curfews, restrictions on gatherings, house arrest for identified organizers and additional identity checks.
“The state of emergency must be accompanied by a firm and swift criminal response: immediate court appearances, detention for those who have assaulted police officers, gendarmes, firefighters, and elected officials, and accountability for perpetrators as well as the families of minors. The French expect the State to protect them, by all means necessary,” he said.
Reconquête leader Éric Zemmour also attributed the unrest to immigration and cultural divisions.
“We see their faces, we hear their voices, we recognize their language… We know who they are, we know where they come from,” Zemmour told Europe 1.
He argued that some participants were motivated “by a hatred of our country and by a desire for revenge for colonialism,” rather than the economic and educational grievances cited by protest organizers.
Those interpretations remain contested, and comprehensive evidence concerning the backgrounds and motivations of arrested individuals has not been released.
The original demonstrations began with student demands for improvements in education before expanding to include concerns over public spending, rising energy costs and declining purchasing power. Although hundreds of thousands participated, authorities attributed the looting and attacks to smaller groups operating alongside the larger protests.
Macron’s government now faces two simultaneous challenges: restoring public order and addressing the grievances that brought demonstrators into the streets.
As the president continues his Gulf tour, Lecornu and Nuñez remain responsible for coordinating the domestic response, with further demonstrations scheduled and opposition leaders calling for tougher security measures ahead of France’s 2027 presidential election.
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