Macron rejects Nunez’s resignation after nearly 2,400 protest arrests

President Emmanuel Macron refused Interior Minister Laurent Nunez's resignation on Oct. 19 after authorities reported nearly 2,400 arrests at cost-of-living demonstrations, Deutsche Welle reported, citing the Élysée Palace and Interior Ministry.

The decision leaves Nunez directing the security response six months before France is due to elect Macron's replacement. The Interior Ministry put injuries among police and gendarmes, France's armed police, at almost 1,000 after Saturday's unrest.

The Élysée Palace said Macron blamed official shortcomings he called "failures in anticipation and intelligence." It said he nevertheless declined to accept Nunez's offer to step down.

Nunez said on Oct. 19 that officers nationwide had "lost control" during the weekend. He said he submitted his resignation "because I felt responsible for everything that happened."

Macron told Nunez to "take all necessary steps to ensure transparency over the failures in planning and intelligence that led to the violence," according to the presidential office. The president also ordered changes to security-force operations for handling the crisis and dealing with violent looters.

The protests focused on the rising cost of living, high fuel prices and wider social discontent. The CGT union put national turnout at 500,000, while organizers sought to draw students, workers, retirees, farmers, climate activists and anti-fascists into a movement echoing the 2018-2019 Yellow Vest protests.

DW reported that early accounts put the national police and gendarme deployment at 10,000, before the Interior Ministry corrected the figure to 60,000, including 5,000 in Paris. The capital had deployed 14,000 police and gendarmes for a recent visit by Pope Leo XIV, when as many as 700,000 people gathered in central Paris.

The political dispute has turned on responsibility for the violence as well as the policing of protest. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, attended the Paris rally and criticized media coverage, saying most demonstrations were peaceful. Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally accused him of "legitimizing violence" and seeking to "plunge the country into chaos."

Jordan Bardella, National Rally's leader, described those responsible for the violence as "professionals of chaos" and accused the far left of discrediting legitimate social demands. Benoit Payan, Marseille's left-wing mayor, told BFMTV it was unacceptable to use such claims to attack police and destroy property, calling violent protesters "useful idiots of the far right."

The Élysée's instructions to Nunez leave the interior minister responsible for producing transparency over the planning and intelligence failures Macron identified. The Deutsche Welle report did not include a dated timetable for that review.