France Protest Aftermath: Paris Mayor Says Whole Street 'Devastated,' Government Calls Violence a 'Warm-Up' for Election as Mélenchon Faults Police
PARIS — On Sunday morning, October 18, the morning after France's nationwide cost-of-living protest day, Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said an entire street in the capital had been "devastated" after touring damaged areas, describing the perpetrators as organized looting gangs that had disconnected CCTV cameras beforehand, according to AFP. Looting and vandalism were reported across Paris, Marseille, Nice, Nantes, Bordeaux, Limoges, Lille, Toulouse and Strasbourg, and Marseille's city hall was broken into and graffitied.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the violence was a "warm-up" ahead of the next presidential election and that the government "will not let itself be intimidated." Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the hard-left France Unbowed, criticized the police handling and said the marches themselves had been peaceful.
GSM previously reported that Lecornu announced late on October 17 that 1,200 people had been arrested nationwide and 150 police officers injured, while organizers and the Interior Ministry put turnout at more than 800,000 and about 550,000 respectively. (GSM, following AFP)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：巴黎共和国广场共和国纪念碑资料照片。照片：Romainbehar，Wikimedia Commons，CC0。File photo: the Monument to the Republic at Place de la République in Paris. Photo by Romainbehar, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
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