5 notable reactions to violent riots roiling France: 'They're destroying that country'

2. Emmanuel Macron and other French politicians: 'People need to wake up now'

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed "anger and shame" at the violence during a rare televised address on Sunday. Distinguishing legitimate peaceful protesters from "ultra-left fringe groups" and delinquents engaged in "unbridled violence," he promised justice for the massive theft and damage.

"Those who looted will have to pay for the damage, and those who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable," Macron said.

Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella of the National Rally, a right-wing French political party that advocates for deporting illegal immigrants, framed the riots as a crisis of authority that has emerged after years of left-wing policies.

????BREAKING: 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. https://t.co/LRjxvBQ5KV

— Inevitable West (@Inevitablewest) October 17, 2026

“We are paying for decades of being soft on crime, of weak authority, of the moral, psychological, and material disarmament of our internal security forces," Bardella, president of the National Rally, told The New York Times amid shattered storefronts and torched cars in Paris. He described the violence as a convergence of far-left extremism and young suburban delinquency.

"People need to wake up now," he said. "They need to make the right political choices, and in any case, we stand ready to restore order in the country."

Le Pen, who is running in the French presidential election next spring, delivered her own address hours before Macron on Sunday, condemning the violence and offering a portrait of a divided France.

"You saw yesterday our cities, our streets, our country, battered, mistreated, ransacked. We are living through a profound crisis of trust, of authority that poses a threat to democracy," Le Pen posted to X, according to a translation by the platform. "This observation must alert us: our country is caught in a vise, or even taken hostage, between violence and powerlessness."