French President Emmanuel Macron, in an emergency address to the nation on the evening of October 18, 2026, demanded that the government take tough measures to prevent a repeat of the large-scale street unrest that erupted across the country. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
He called on the cabinet to learn lessons from the work of special services in gathering intelligence and forecasting such incidents.
"Nothing can justify their actions. All of us feel anger and shame in the evening looking at the catastrophe on our streets," Macron said.
He also said that Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu will head a crisis center starting Sunday to find solutions and support victims.
The French president also stated that the voices of protesters must be heard.
"Their voices must be heard, without bias and without downplaying the difficulties. The government has already begun this work," the French leader said.
The politician noted that the authorities must listen to angry citizens and address the root causes of the crisis while upholding the rule of law.
"We must not confuse legitimate demands with violence and must not allow violence to prevent these demands from being heard," Macron added.
At the same time, Macron also promised to "severely punish all looters."
"How did you come to this?" Macron addressed the protesters, mentioning the arson of the Limoges city hall, a tourist office in Lyon, and an attack on the Marseille city hall.
Earlier, Kursiv wrote that US President Donald Trump, amid large-scale unrest in France, called on Paris to close the country's borders and take the situation under control.
According to the French Interior Ministry, law enforcement detained between 1,200 and 1,800 people. At least 150 police officers and gendarmes were injured during the suppression of the unrest.