Macron keeps interior minister after 2,400 France protest arrests

President Emmanuel Macron refused Interior Minister Laurent Nunez’s resignation on Monday after nearly 2,400 arrests in French cost-of-living protests, Deutsche Welle reported in an Oct. 19 news report.

The decision keeps France’s security leadership in place after almost 1,000 police and gendarmes, armed national police, were injured during unrest that followed Saturday rallies, the Interior Ministry said Sunday.

The Elysee Palace said Macron condemned what it called “failures in anticipation and intelligence” by French authorities. It said he told Nunez to improve transparency over planning and intelligence failures and develop new policing methods for handling violence and looting.

Nunez said Monday that police across France had “lost control” during the weekend. He said he offered to resign “because I felt responsible for everything that happened.”

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu called for municipalities to impose “very limited” and “localized” curfews where needed. After a Monday crisis meeting, he said, “I am absolutely determined to restore order,” and added that he would not rule out a state of emergency: “If needed, I will do it.”

The unrest followed demonstrations over rising living costs, social inequality and high fuel prices. DW reported that tens of thousands joined protests across the country, while the CGT union put nationwide turnout at 500,000. The report supplied no official national turnout figure.

The Interior Ministry said 60,000 police and gendarmes had been mobilized before the protests, including 5,000 in Paris, after an initial report cited 10,000 nationwide. DW compared that with 14,000 deployed in Paris during a recent visit by Pope Leo XIV, when as many as 700,000 people gathered in the capital.

Opposition politicians have called for Nunez to be removed. Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of France Unbowed, criticized media coverage and said most demonstrations were peaceful, while Marine Le Pen of the National Rally accused him of “legitimizing violence” and seeking to “plunge the country into chaos.”

Authorities in Marseille banned all “gatherings and demonstrations” from noon to 8 p.m. Monday. Benoit Payan, the city’s left-wing mayor, told BFMTV it was unacceptable to use social demands as a pretext to damage property or attack police, according to DW.

In Paris, DW reported that students blocked the entrance to the Louvre in solidarity with protesters and that unions said the museum would remain closed. Students were also blocking Sciences Po in the center of the capital.

Nunez was expected to visit Marseille later Monday after the city imposed its noon-to-8 p.m. ban on gatherings and demonstrations. His visit will test whether the government can contain unrest in France’s second-largest city without broader emergency measures.

Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League home match against Barcelona is scheduled for Tuesday night. Lecornu said Monday there were no current plans to cancel the game.

Lecornu said local curfews appeared better suited to the situation than immediate national emergency powers, while adding that he would impose a state of emergency if needed.

Source: news report, Deutsche Welle, Oct. 19