{"id":228075,"date":"2026-10-20T00:46:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T00:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/france-moves-to-impose-curfews-as-it-reels-from-worst-violence-in-years-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T00:46:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T00:46:04","slug":"france-moves-to-impose-curfews-as-it-reels-from-worst-violence-in-years-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/france-moves-to-impose-curfews-as-it-reels-from-worst-violence-in-years-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"France moves to impose curfews as it reels from worst violence in years – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Only shattered glass and the skeletal frame of the Haussmannian roof remain of Limoges\u2019 19th century town hall.
The town was among the places hit hardest by the rioting and looting that erupted across France over the weekend<\/a>, leaving the country reeling from its worst violence in years.
The towering spire at the heart of Limoges ultimately collapsed in flames, drawing cheers from the crowd below that were captured on video. In Paris, the Louvre Museum said it was closed after protesters announced their blockade of the iconic tourist site.
Authorities conceded they had \u201clost control\u201d in major cities, and said Monday they had asked some cities to impose a partial curfew in a bid to restore order.
\u201cDespite scenes of severe violence and extensive property damage, no one was killed and that is a miracle,\u201d Prime Minister S\u00e9bastien Lecornu said after an emergency meeting with top officials. About 3,000 businesses had been looted or vandalized, he added.
The unrest came on the heels of an anti-government movement that had seen days of largely peaceful protests over rising living costs and poor school conditions. On the weekend, this unrest descended into violence on the streets of cities across France: Rioters, often hooded and masked, looted stores and torched cars and government buildings as they faced off with the police.
More than half a million people took part in the protests across the country, according to the French Interior Ministry, and nearly 2,400 people were arrested. Almost 1,000 police officers and firefighters were injured, it added.
Macron blamed \u201ctroublemakers from far-left fringe groups\u201d for the violence.
\u201cWatching these images, we all wondered how French people could do this to France,\u201d he said in a televised address Sunday. \u201cNothing justifies it, nothing explains it, nothing excuses it.\u201d
Macron added that \u201cthose who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable.\u201d
Macron\u2019s centrist administration, in its final months of power, has been consumed by a mounting sense of crisis that could pave the way for the far right to take power next year. Macron will leave the presidency of the eurozone\u2019s second-biggest nation with ballooned debt, stagnated growth and deep-seated social discontent.
The president \u201clooks like a spectator,\u201d Sylvain Brouard, research director of Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques at Sciences Po in Paris, told NBC News.
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t look like he was in control of anything,\u201d he said, and people are expecting \u201csolutions.\u201d
Macron appeared at a C\u00e9line Dion concert Friday and embarked Monday for a Gulf tour to secure oil supplies, fueling criticism that he appeared out of touch with public concerns.
\u201cThat\u2019s probably a source of anger for many of the people that were claiming their frustrations and their deprivations and the need for more money for the higher cost of living,\u201d Brouard said.
As the damage became clearer Sunday, political leaders across the spectrum pointed fingers at each other for the violence.
Macron\u2019s centrist government blamed the far left, while the leading far-left candidate Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon blamed the incumbents. Leading far-right presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen on Sunday called <\/a>Macron\u2019s administration \u201cexhausted, disoriented and seemingly incapable of doing anything other than commenting on its own powerlessness.\u201d
She leads the polls ahead of April\u2019s vote.
Macron stopped short of declaring an emergency, as some right-wing politicians demanded.
But some cities, including the southern port city of Marseille, imposed a ban on public gatherings for most of Monday. Speaking after the crisis meeting Monday, Lecornu said he had asked some local authorities to introduce curfews but dismissed the idea of putting all of Paris under such a measure.
Unrest had continued in Paris on Sunday as police faced off with demonstrators at Place de la R\u00e9publique. Damage was acute all around France, though, not just in the capital.
While protest movements are part of the fabric of French society, they seldom take a turn as violent as they did over the weekend. For many, watching flames engulf the town hall in Limoges, a central town known for its porcelain, was an assault on the state itself.
\u201cTo attack her is to attack the republic,\u201d Mayor Guillaume Gu\u00e9rin said in a post on X on Sunday.
In the southeastern city of Lyon, a tourist office building was burned. Some storefronts along the shopping streets near Bordeaux\u2019s city hall were destroyed, and the goods inside appear to have been stolen, social media videos geolocated by NBC News showed.
City halls in Marseille, Lille and Angers were broken into, Interior Minister Laurent Nu\u00f1ez said Sunday, adding the arrests made had little to do with the student protests.
Authorities had \u201clost control\u201d in major cities, the interior minister conceded. He offered his resignation to Macron, who rejected it.
President Donald Trump blamed immigration for the violence in the country, saying Sunday on Truth Social, \u201cFrance is burning!\u201d He blamed immigrants again on Monday, saying, \u201cThey must CLOSE THE BORDERS, FAST!\u201d
Vice President JD Vance said on X<\/a> the protests served as a warning for Americans.
\u201cThis is the future congressional Democrats seek for your country,\u201d Vance said.
French officials have not blamed immigrants for the unrest. Macron acknowledged legitimate concerns of the protesters, while blaming the far left for the violence.
High school students initially demanding better classroom conditions first took to the streets last month, highlighting crumbling infrastructure and insufficient teaching capacity.
\u201cWe\u2019re weeks into the movement, and the proposals of the government were pretty late and they were pretty deaf to the claims of the students,\u201d Brouard said.
Their protests were met with a forceful response from the police as riot officers launched tear gas.
In the weeks that followed, the students were joined by several labor unions and farmers who demanded respite from a whole host of issues, including primarily the soaring cost of living and the price of gas, which has shot up in part due to the war in Iran.
The demands of French students resemble those of their peers in Spain, Portugal and Albania, who in recent days have also taken to the streets over education conditions.
In Italy, weekend protests over rising costs and public services resulted in hundreds of arrests after scenes of looting and vandalism, authorities said Monday.
Mithil Aggarwal is a Hong Kong-based reporter\/producer for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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