France is in shock over weekend riots.
What Happened
Senseless destruction of historic buildings, businesses, and schools came to a head on Saturday throughout France. Up to 800,000 people were involved in protests throughout France.
The protests started with students upset over classroom size, lack of teachers, and buildings in need of repairs.
Students blockaded hundreds of schools and set fire to, or damaged, at least 24 of them. Thousands of students have been arrested since September. Over 1,000 police officers, students and school staff have been hurt.
The students were joined by unions, radical Left rioters, and opportunistic looters to break into businesses and steal what they can.
Some historic building have been heavily damaged by arson. Here are some takes from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Twitter.
Huge Riots and Anti-Government Protests Roil France
The New York Times reports Huge Riots and Anti-Government Protests Roil France
France is reeling from its largest unrest in years, after anti-government demonstrations devolved into riots and looting that caused nationwide damage and deepened a sense of national reckoning.
As the chaos subsided on Sunday, political leaders blamed each other for the unrest and citizens looked on with shock at their cities, littered with broken glass and the charred skeletons of burned cars.
The violence marked a convergence between a weeks-old student movement for better school conditions, an emerging national movement to protest high living costs, and opportunistic rioters who used the demonstrations as a cover for looting.
The protests have heightened a sense of fiscal and social crisis in France, the European Union’s second-largest economy. The government is trying to pass an unpopular belt-tightening budget while facing public anger that has helped position Marine Le Pen, a far-right leader, as the favorite to win the presidency in an election next spring.
More than half a million people joined some 110 marches throughout France on Saturday, the interior ministry said, in the biggest day of protest since the demonstrations began about a month ago. A major union, the C.G.T., gave a higher estimate, saying 800,000 protesters had turned out.
Amid many peaceful demonstrations, rioters vandalized roughly 1,500 shops and many symbols of the French state, leading to roughly 2,000 arrests. An arson attack largely destroyed the town hall in Limoges, in central France. In Marseille, the second-largest city, masked people broke into a government building and tipped over a bust of Marianne, a symbol of the Republic.
Destructive Protests Sweep Across France
The Washington Post reports Destructive Protests Sweep Across France, with Buildings Burned and Hundreds Detained.
Violence and destruction swept across France late Saturday as protests over rising living costs, educational conditions and proposed budget cuts erupted into looting, arson and widespread mayhem.
As public anger boiled over, more than half a million people took to the streets in cities from Lille in the north to Marseille in the south, as well as in Paris, the capital. At least 1,800 people were detained and 150 police officers and gendarmes were injured, authorities said.
On Sunday morning, people awoke to images of littered streets and wrecked government buildings, the most shocking being the charred shell of the historic town hall in Limoges, which was consumed by fire with its spire collapsing into bright orange flames in the night.
The unrest follows weeks of mostly student-led protests, some also involving violence and vandalism, which have accelerated with the support of labor unions and other groups protesting the policies of President Emmanuel Macron’s government.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu blamed “far-left groups” for Saturday’s violence in several cities, adding that “criminals have joined in to loot and destroy.”
Lecornu told reporters that the government would not be “intimidated” and accused the “ultraleft ” of stoking violence ahead of a presidential election next year. “There is obviously a political battle to wage,” Lecornu said, adding that France was at a “point of no return.”
Le Pen Chimes In
Le Pen Translation
Loot, ransack, destroy, attack law enforcement: the rioters have once again poisoned the October 17 demonstrations in defense of purchasing power.
Legitimate social demands have once again been held hostage by the far left and the speeches of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s deputies, who, by legitimizing violence, viewing order as oppression and disorder as a right, seek to plunge the country into chaos.
Faced with this incendiary strategy, the French people, who can no longer bear being caught between the austerity and fiscal hammering of those in power and the insurrectionary activists, must hold out for a few more months.
We will free them from Macronist toxic policies and protect them from the violence of the far left.
Huge Riots in France Prompt Shock and Blame Game
Also consider Huge Riots in France Prompt Shock and Blame Game
France was in a state of shock on Sunday, as citizens walked through streets lined with shattered storefronts, charred cars and burned-out government buildings after the country’s largest demonstrations in years devolved into riots and looting.
The unrest on Saturday — which led to some 2,000 arrests — caused widespread damage to several symbols of the state, including a 19th-century city hall in Limoges, a town in central France renowned for its porcelain, that was largely destroyed in a nighttime arson attack. More than 600 police officers were injured, Laurent Nuñez, France’s interior minister, said on social media on Sunday.
Rioters attacked city halls from Lille in northern France to Marseille in the south, where they broke into the local government headquarters and tipped over a bust of Marianne, a symbol of the French Republic. A fire also destroyed a tourist office in Lyon, and 1,500 shops were damaged or looted nationwide, according to Alexandre Bompard, head of the French federation of commerce and distribution, who estimated that the cost of repairs could run into hundreds of millions of dollars.
“I’ve never seen this before, I am disgusted,” said Sophie Vanpoperinghe, 47, as she gazed at ransacked shops on Boulevard Magenta, the road in Paris where she has lived for 22 years and which is frequently used for demonstrations.
“It feels like society is spinning out of control,” said Henri Parent, 56, a tourist from Belgium who was surveying broken storefronts in central Paris on Sunday morning.
That’s a free link with many shocking images of the widespread destruction, fires, and looting.
Videos do a much better job than words or links. Please watch this one.
Massive Riots in Marseille
Footage from Central Paris
The historic Limoges town hall has just completely collapsed after far-left rioters set it on fire It was built in 1876. It survived World Wars. It did not survive modern France.
Morons cheered.
“Stop, This Isn’t the Cause”
An Amazing Police Scene in Paris
This is another must see clip.
Comment of the Day
Paris looks like a war zone. What is the cause? The cost of living? Mass immigration? A mismanaged economy? Excessive spending on war? A crisis of political legitimacy caused by an unaccountable elite? Europe will likely be a very different place 10 years from now.
Le Pen’s Fiscal Plan for France Cannot Possibly Work
On October 8, 2026, I commented Le Pen’s Fiscal Plan for France Cannot Possibly Work, Will Voter’s Care?
No one ever cares about fiscal sanity in France or the US.
They all lie about growth, taxes, revenue, wars, and everything else.
France has gotten away with flouting EU budget rules but Greece didn’t. The reason is France is France. More accurately France is too big to bail.
But the EU has no love affair with Le Pen, so the crisis will surely come to a head in 2027, one way or another, no matter who wins.
French Budget Deficit Explodes Into a Major Debt Crisis and Riots
On October 7, 2026, I commented French Budget Deficit Explodes Into a Major Debt Crisis and Riots
The welfare state in France is coming unglued. An EU-wide crisis is coming.
Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate who is leading in the polls, has vowed to push France’s age of retirement as low as 60 years old, a measure she says would cost the state an extra 9 billion euros (about $10.1 billion) a year.
Her closest rival in the polls, far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, wants the European Central Bank to freeze or wipe away the French bond holdings of the Bank of France, a sum worth 488 billion euros.
“Throw it in the fire,” Mélenchon quipped.
“Throw it in the Fire”
And they did, literally, just not in the sense Mélenchon wanted.
I suspect this seals the next French election. Support for the far Left is going to collapse.
With our government mismanagement exacerbated by essentially free money to borrow having come to an end, I expect similar discontent in the US next summer as the economy, jobs, general availability of goods and services are likely to be much less than the citizenry expects. Constricted economy will mean less tax revenue and more stress on federal state and local governments, also making it more difficult for the federal level to pawn responsibilities down the line. The huge debt run up over the last 30 to 40 years has brought forth a lot of economic activity that must at least in part be normalized in the correction process that is incrementally hindered by ever increasing debt service costs. Huge borrowing by government and the tech sector for AI buildouts, impeding trade with tariffs and torn up trade agreements, all the wars, or cash handouts if they were to materialize are not helping to solve the problem.
What a mess.
This is the preview of global debt crisis.
Over 40 years global bond yields have been dropping and ended with negative
interest rate in 2020.
Every countries enjoyed the dropping bond yields. The more you take debt and
the less interest they paid.
Then the countries especially Western countries including US caught off guard
after 2020 when bond yields rise up. That is paradigm shift.
Now rising inflation, bond yields and weaker economy especially in Western world.
Welcome GLOBAL STAGFLATION !
More unrest, More riots.
Debt has reached its limit.
You have enjoyed best part of the world for 40 years.
Now prepare for the worst part of the world.
Lets blame each others.
We have a problem… the problem is us.
Milan, Lisbon protests are happening. It’s a networked world. Let’s see if righties counter-protest. Party like it’s 1923.
Well it seems inflation and debt is a world problem. I wonder how much of the trouble is stirred up by russia.
‘France, truly, is on the brink’ and just days away from a make-or-break moment in its debt crisis, analyst warns, as protests turn into riots‘France, truly, is on the brink’ and days away from a make-or-break moment in its debt crisis | Fortune
Cutting spending works so well.
I do wonder what the 80 million boomers will do when social security benefits get cut out of the pending insolvency right around the corner. They’ll be too old to riot but will they march with their walkers on D.C? Or will we just hear stories of dead boomer discovered 4 months after dying alone over and over again?
I doubt younger generations will get worked up on their behalf. The VA budget may get cut too because despite all the rhetoric, no one in politics really cares about the troops.
It’s going to be a sad day for those left behind…
Most of “the troops” now in VA care foolishly volunteered despite decades of evidence that all the wars the US fought in since the beginning of the 20th century were based on lies.
They fucked up. They trusted the US government.
Maybe this will discourage future enlistments.
Boomers are still too big of a reliable voting block for politicians to ignore. The Uniparty politicians will fall over themselves to save Social Security at current levels. It’s not like anyone cares about the debt anyway, as increases in the war budget boom.
Once the trust fund is empty, if nothing at all is done to increase social security revenue, a beneficiary will still get 78% of their existing benefit. So if a person is $45,000 per year before the trust fined is exhausted, they will still get $35,100 per year.
Or properly taxing the very wealthy.
If you cut support for the bottom you crime and a general collapse of society. Unless you can afford to live in a secure gated community with private armed security your a lot close to that bottom than you think.
Lets put this into perspective. Last year tesla paid no taxes. Not sure how much musk paid. But he is able to spend something like 336 million( close but don’t quote me) to get a criminal elected. There are 438 million citizens in the us.
Every jurisdiction would have to say yes at the same time to coordinated tax hikes. Good luck with that.
Populist movements have a funny way of making sure there’s no tall grass to hide in
The population of USA is 349,660,921 this Sunday … you socialists have issues with numbers.
The majority of “protestors” are recent migrants.
It seems that the cultural collapse together with the financial crisis in France is just beginning … highly likely it will affect other countries in Europe …
Italians, Albanians, and Portuguese are having similar riots.
It won’t be long before they are rioting in the UK and Germany.
Given French attitudes towards elitism and inequality, I suppose that France deserves a far-left government by a year from now. The workers seizing places-of-employment and ousting the owners and managers, etc. And many of those owners and managers fleeing the country to save their lives and “freedom” (from kidnapping for ransom).
Glenn Diesen is probably right “Europe will likely be a very different place 10 years from now.” And so seems is Greg Atkinson “”Europe is already now a very different place to what it was 10 years ago and not in a good way.” (Can the Fifth Republic survive long enough to match the Third Republic in duration? And beyond that?)
P.S. I expect that the French are per capita as wealthy as they will ever be, and are now headed downward in standard of living.
Why are the police allowing this to happen? This is not a peaceful protest and they could stop it if they wanted to.
800,000 protesters vs may be 8000 riot police.
100 : 1
If protesters are violent they can’t be stopped.
FWIW, diesel jut hit $6.89 at my benchmark station this morning which is ten cents higher than the last high…
What happened with tax relief and diesel from Russia? Trump happened, that’s what…
There were NO MAGA hats at the after church social and some damn grumpy hard core Trump supporters did not stay for the meal.
It is harvest time, so few farmers are hitting the cafe for coffee. In a couple of weeks I’ll get take their pulse as they try to sell the physical excess of their crop.
I do not row crop corn, soy or wheat so I store a few neighbors oversupply of corn in my silos and side loading leads this time of year. They all produced about three more bushels per acre over plan. NO idea when it will find a market… Just gotta keep it dry!
Oh My!
I was in France last year for what were described as huge protests and they were nothing like this. This is serious and scary! What a damn disaster!
France has recently announced military support for Saudi Arabia and they can not take care of their own educational system?
Let the two incompetent extremists flail and get some moderate candidates with a level of competence take the helm!
Radical activism does not solve anything. It only divides and destroys.
I doubt there are any political solutions to what’s happening.
Maybe it can be papered over for a brief time but it’s going to flare up again and again and get perpetually worse because the fundamental problems can’t be solved politically by anyone.
There are too many promises (early retirement, generous welfare, free health care etc) and not near enough resources (both in terms physical goods and human labor) to meet them all.
It will ultimately come for all the 1st world countries, it just came for France first.
Election? Really?
Good thing Charles Martel was “elected” 1300 years ago. /s
Did their military run out of Napoleon-flavored grapeshot?
Hopefully the price of a dozen eggs is reasonable there, as that is usually mentioned in the context of government stability here.
Trump’s Iran war is driving up diesel globally, everything dependent on that fuel will rise in cost over the next 12 to 18 months even if everything were magically solved today. Price of eggs may be down lately but it will soar right back up in due time.
“I love the inflation”. — Trump, June, 2026
He can say and do anything, and his minions will elect a Repub majority Senate. I can’t wait to see what the impending post-election Iran military action will do for prices. Katie Zacharia for SCOTUS!
As I stated before, people in France are rioting because of the failure of socialism in France and they want to elect right wing clowns. And people in America are seeking to elect socialist candidates after right wing clowns failed the American people.
See the pattern yet? Don’t worry, you’ll get a chance again a couple of weeks from now on election day and the subsequent 365 days that follow.
Got exit strategy? Obvious note: U.S. and France should be off your list. Probably scratch UK, Australia, Italy, and Portugal too for now anyway.
Anywhere in Europe should be 100% off your list unless your timeline is very short (10 years or less). In 20+ years most of the Europeans will have been replaced by immigrants (Muslims in France are 10% of the population but account for 40% of births) and what we are seeing in France will have been repeated everywhere.
How do you rate Turkmenistan as a retirement spot?
That country is fairly closed off to outsiders.
My nephew liked Moldova, when he visited.
He said the food was great – they have no food-processing industry – everything was home-cooked, or right off the farm.
On this planet, if you are not Larry Ellison, and maybe even if you are, there is no longer any refuge, despite the eternal fond fantasies of escape. No, we do not get “away clean.”
If you have money, its good whereever.
As european quality of life continues to deteriorate, there can be only one solution acceptable to the political classes:
Send more money to Ukraine, more war, more weapons.
And as American quality of life continues to deteriorate, there can be only one solution acceptable to the political classes:
Send more money to Israel, more war, more weapons….and feign outrage for the public.
Jan 6 vs the destruction in Europe right now. Give me a break. Here’s a report on damage inside the Capitol building:
“statues, murals and historic benches displayed the residue of various pepper sprays, tear gas and fire extinguishers deployed by mostly law enforcement personnel”
That and a few broken windows. Oh the horror! People were sitting in Congressional offices and taking pictures of themselves.
Turn on a TV and look what is happening in Europe, or keep your head buried in the sand. You’ll get what you deserve when your party reopens the border.
Sorry — this reply is attached to the wrong comment. See below.
The 6ers stopped after the military was called in. I’m not sure why France didn’t deploy the military to stop the rioting but I’m sure it has something to do with political gain for someone.
The politicians in Europe fear for their (family’s) lives. The illegals there don’t just threaten, they follow through.
You know it’s funny, actually absolutely not funny, but in the 30’s, Europe fragmented politically toward left and right like that, and then soon struck out to seize oil and grain through, guess where, Ukraine, against guess who, Russia.
I don’t think this is a question of resources.
This is a question of power. Nothing more.
So where does Europe get fuel? To this day, the same regions it did 90 years ago. Britain then had the Middle East oil locked up, but was cozy with France. Germany had no other options (a bit of oil in Romania), so it struck east and south. And this France situation now is most immediately an energy scarcity (price) crisis as much as anything else, driving everything domestically to zero sum. Students and retirees are how it trickles down. Hence the support for Saudi Arabia: the supply chain.
“Riot – A popular entertainment given to the military by innocent bystanders.”
― Ambrose Bierce
Hope taco’s proud boys don’t respond in a similar manner in a couple of weeks.
A bad and hysterical analogy maybe, but once the brown shirts did their prelude in the streets, the more professionalized men in black took over, and detention centers had already started construction. All that were needed were a couple of convenient pretextual national security threat-events to point to, for escalation.
Welcome to the world of unvetted illegal immigration. When the Democrats own Congress again, you can bet your ass we’re going back to wide open borders. In fact, at this point, it’s the only guarantee you can count on concerning what the Democrat party will bring.
Yes, that’s exactly what the January 6’ers were, unvetted illegal immigrants tearing up the Congressional building and threatening to hang Pence.
Jan 6 vs the destruction in Europe right now. Give me a break. Here’s a report on damage inside the Capitol building:
“statues, murals and historic benches displayed the residue of various pepper sprays, tear gas and fire extinguishers deployed by mostly law enforcement personnel”
That and exactly 56 broken window panes. Oh the horror! People were sitting in Congressional offices and taking pictures of themselves.
Turn on a TV and look what is happening in Europe, or keep your head buried in the sand. You’ll get what you deserve when your party reopens the border.
“56 broken window panes”…
And 114 US Capitol police officers injured, but I guess they aren’t as important to note as the historic window panes
I’m already seeing the GOP ads in my area saying the GOP candidate supports law enforcement. I’m waiting for the Democrat ads asking where those GOP candidates were after Jan. 6, but American memories are short…
Symbolically, to me, the assault on our capital and institutions, abetted and then papered over by the departing and now-sitting president, so, also legally and institutionally, was 1000x worse than a few French department stores being burned or looted. Trivializing it as a few windows, as if windows anywhere, being broken, is straight up demagoguery.
Oh totally. They were there to overthrow the government!!!!! 😱😱😱😱
All those white Boomers who were actively encouraged by undercover FBI agents and informants,waived past barricades by Capitol Hill police. We all know white people know how to riot. Blacks have nothing on whites in this regard.
And then they put their feet up on Nancy “We have to pass the bill to find out what is in it” Piglosi’s desk. 👀👀👀👀👀👀 Democracy almost died right there you guys!
You sound worked up. Has it been a while since your last profitgasm?
No, the Jan. 6 peeps and their promoters knew exactly what they were doing when they rioted in democratically-controlled DC.
Try doing the same thing in my GOP-controlled stand-your-ground state. Shout you’re going to kill or hang someone, charge at them or carry anything menacingly that can hurt someone, and you can be shot on sight. If no one collects your rioting body from the front yard before trash day, you can be escorted out with the leaf collection truck.
No one would even question the shooter when the film was shown. Lucky old, white Jan. 6 boomers!
Reminds me of the USA Krystal-Nacht of 2020
sold to the people as the Floyd Riots
Always reason(s) behind the excuses and distraction(s)
and those who swore to protect, are making excuses on TV
for the problems they in part or whole, created
Unhinged to compare the Floyd protests (which wouldn’t have been anything if people weren’t locked up with COVID) to krystalnacht