Saturday's demonstrations saw about 500,000 people march across France to protest rising living costs, but the crowds turned violent in cities such as Lyon and Marseille. Shops were looted, some set on fire, and by evening police had arrested 2,500 people and treated 1,000 security personnel with injuries. A Marseille shopkeeper, Marielle Desprez, told a local radio station that her shop was ransacked and "we could barely look the police in the eye" after the chaos.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who had been on the front lines, offered his resignation on Monday, citing a "lack of anticipation" in deploying 60,000 officers that day. He said the police force was "insufficient to deal with the large crowds of rioters and looters on the fringes of the demonstrations" and that the violence had forced him to step down. In Paris, 350 protesters were taken into custody overnight, and 70% of the 2,330 people arrested nationwide were adults, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
President Emmanuel Macron refused to accept Nunez's resignation and ordered a comprehensive security review. He said the interior minister must "take all necessary steps to ensure transparency over the failures in planning and intelligence that led to the violence" and implement new operational methods for ground forces. Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire added that about 30 shops had been targeted in the capital on Sunday, describing the scenes as "unbearable".
The Chamber of Commerce president, Alain Di Crescenzo, warned that more than 2,000 shops were hit across the country, estimating damage in the "hundreds of millions of euros". Meanwhile, a protester in Lyon lost his hand after a police crowd‑control grenade misfired, a casualty that has added a human face to the unrest.
Macron has called for a cabinet meeting by Friday to outline new policing protocols and hinted that local authorities could ban certain rallies if necessary. He also said that the review would include a reassessment of deployment strategies to prevent a repeat of the weekend's chaos.