In an address to the nation on Sunday evening, French President Emmanuel Macron refused to take any accountability for the national riots that erupted on Saturday, as he sought to shift the blame onto the far-left and even external forces like the Iran conflict while failing to acknowledge the role mass migration played in creating a groundswell of support for the unrest.
President Macron, who has become little more than a lame duck in the Élysée with six months left in his term in office, addressed the country for the first time since the youth revolt began nearly a month ago.
Rather than taking a ‘the buck stops here’ approach, Mr Macron did not admit to any personal failings after his government failed to foresee or prevent some of the most destructive riots in recent memory, resulting in historic buildings being torched, thousands of shops being looted, and hundreds of police officers, gendarmes, and firefighters being injured on Saturday.
Instead, the outgoing leader pointed to “extremists from far-left groups” and “criminals” as being solely responsible for the “unrestrained violence” witnessed across France.
Meanwhile, Macron appeared to completely ignore the role that the importation of millions of foreigners into the country has had on the social framework, with many of the rioters being suspected of hailing from the multicultural suburban enclaves like Saint-Denis. Instead, the president questioned, “How can French people do this to France?”
“Why burn down the town hall in Limoges, the tourist office in Lyon, storm the town hall in Marseille, or attack the prefect’s residence in Bordeaux? How can they go so far? Nothing justifies it, nothing explains it, nothing excuses it. We all feel anger and shame tonight. Seeing the streets of our cities so ransacked is unbearable,” he questioned.
The neo-liberal president went on to claim that a distinction should be made between the “several hundred thousand of our fellow citizens [who] demonstrated with the intention of making legitimate demands” and “those who destroyed, vandalised, and looted.”
For example, Macron claimed the protesters were justified in expressing “concern” over the cost of living and fuel price hikes. In an apparent attempt to shift blame onto U.S. President Donald Trump, he attributed the European energy crisis solely to the conflict between the United States and Iran, while quickly adding that “France did not participate”.
“I fully understand their concern. It is also being expressed in several other European capitals. In this regard, I have taken several initiatives at the international level to guarantee our fuel and gas supplies and to act on the energy markets. I will continue these actions tomorrow morning by travelling to the Gulf countries to secure our supplies,” he said.
The French leader also said that the youth movement that sparked the weeks of protests and riots was justified in expressing “profound anxiety” and concern “about living and studying conditions, about their ability to choose a path, to plan for the future, to find their place in society.”
“Our responsibility is therefore twofold: to listen to the anger and address its root causes, and to firmly uphold the rule of law. We must not confuse legitimate demands with violence, nor allow violence to prevent these demands from being heard,” he said.
As far as any actual accountability, the president said he has tasked his Interior and Justice ministers with conducting reviews to provide “complete transparency”. Macron also said Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu will chair a crisis meeting on Monday to “mobilise the fastest possible aid and support” for business owners and others affected by the riots and looting, some of which he claimed will be financially recouped from convicted rioters.
Finally, the outgoing president, barred from running in this race due to term limits, urged restraint from radical factions so the election could be fought in public debates rather than on the streets.
“France is a great democratic force. It deserves these debates. They must take place in public meetings. They must take place with the political parties, and not in the streets through violence. They must take place in newspapers, on television programs, in peaceful gatherings, where we speak and explain ourselves respectfully, never in disorder and destruction. Our country deserves a successful presidential election in six months,” he said.
The frontrunner in the race to replace Macron next Spring, National Rally leader Marine Le Pen rejected the notion of collective guilt for the French, saying on Sunday that “there are millions of French people who are angry, but who are not breaking anything, not looting anything.”
“Macron government is on its last legs, exhausted, disoriented,” she said, adding that the government “seems incapable of doing anything other than commenting on its own impotence.”
Le Pen’s deputy, Jordan Bardella, described Macron’s address as a “lamentable speech”.
“This cowardly and disoriented power has nothing left to say to the French people, nothing left to offer them. It no longer even has the strength to protect them,” he said.
Fellow presidential candidate Éric Zemmour said: “Emmanuel Macron spoke just to say nothing, as usual. He wonders what’s going on in their heads. The French, for their part, wonder what’s going on in his, for having let in 500,000 foreigners a year for the past 10 years.”
The Reconquête party leader added: “It is not misery that unites these rioters. It is their hatred of France. They live in the same cultural and religious bath, and they repeat that France colonised and robbed them. As long as France apologises, they will believe they have the right to take revenge.”