French government in crisis talks after ‘colossal failure of the state’

French government in crisis talks after violent unrest across the country.

The full report

The French government was in crisis talks on Sunday after one of the most violent days of unrest in years left public buildings burned, hundreds of shops destroyed and looted, and more than 2,000 people arrested in cities across the country.

Politicians on the left and right called for the resignation of the interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, after the government appeared to have been caught by surprise by the scale of violence.

The president, Emmanuel Macron, who is standing down next spring, was preparing to address the nation on Sunday night. He wrote on social media there was “no place for violence” in France.

Tens of thousands of peaceful protesters attended calm marches through major cities including Paris, supporting schoolchildren’s demands for more teachers and repairs to decrepit schools.

However, separately to those peaceful demonstrations, different groups caught police and officials by surprise with moving gatherings, sporadic burning, the barricading of streets and clashes with police in cities including Paris, Bordeaux, Nice and Marseille.

Masked looters took advantage of the chaos on the streets to smash shopfronts and grab goods. In Paris, groups of looters, some of whom appeared to be children, were seen running through the night with clothes and shoeboxes after masked adult men smashed shopfronts.

The burnt-out remains of barricades built using bikes, bins and other materials littered streets on Sunday. Several streets had smashed shop windows and the remains of torched cars.