Bardella demands Macron resign as France counts the cost of its worst unrest in years

National Rally president Jordan Bardella demanded on Sunday that Emmanuel Macron resign, declaring that France had been “humiliated” by a weekend of cost-of-living protests that descended into some of the country’s worst urban violence in years.

“What we are paying for is decades of laxity, a loss of authority, and the moral, psychological, and material disarmament of our internal security forces,” Bardella said during a visit to a Paris police station, urging the president to “apologise and go” (Reuters).

His words came as France began a vast clean-up operation on Monday morning. More than 2,400 people were arrested nationwide and over 600 police officers were injured, according to the interior ministry, while one protester died of a cardiac arrest in Paris. Retail chiefs told French media that around 1,500 shops had been looted, with damage running into the hundreds of millions of euros, and Macron called an emergency meeting at the Elysee (The Times).

Marine Le Pen warned that the unrest exposed “a profound crisis of confidence and authority, which is a threat to democracy”, saying France was “trapped, even taken hostage, between violence and impotence” (The Times).

Economy minister Roland Lescure pledged state support for damaged businesses on Sunday: “Those who break things will pay, repair the damage and be held accountable for their intention to sow chaos.” In Limoges, mayor Guillaume Guerin threatened to resign unless his city received funds to repair its 143-year-old town hall, largely destroyed by arson (Reuters).

More than half a million people joined Saturday’s marches, which fused a month-long student movement with wider anger over living costs and public services. The government has blamed hard-left and ultra-left groups and criminals for the violence.