France's government under pressure after weekend of widespread violence

ByKatya Adler Europe editor, Reporting fromParis.

Key points

• The president of France's lower house of parliament, Yaël Braun-Pivet, notes she wants to open an inquiry into exactly what happened this weekend and why.
• An estimated 1, 500 shops and businesses were looted and destroyed.
• How might France's towns and cities be better protected – especially since new mass demonstrations have been confirmed in a couple of weeks' time?
• That is adding to current tensions in France – in politics as well as on the streets.
• "While we worry for our safety, they use this situation as a pre-presidential election political football, " teacher and father of three Edouard informed me.

France's Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is holding a crisis cabinet session on Monday to assess a weekend of violence and looting nationwide, in what were some of the worst scenes of public disorder in modern French history.

On Saturday over half a million mainly peaceful protesters demonstrated against rising living costs and dwindling access to decent public services, including a good state education. But the protests turned nasty after groups of black-clad, masked activists and vandals appeared.

Meanwhile, an estimated 1, 500 shops and businesses were looted and destroyed. Riot police fired tear gas and turned water cannon on crowds. They were seen hitting individuals with batons in a number of places. France's interior ministry remarked concerning 1, 000 police officers were injured on Saturday, seven of them seriously.

There had been rumours in France that President Emmanuel Macron may introduce a temporary curfew in parts of the country, or even impose a state of emergency to support calm the febrile atmosphere. In the end, he applied a televised address to the nation on Sunday to call for national unity and to try to assure the French public that the perpetrators of the violence would be punished.

Macron's speech has been roundly criticised on social media forums and by political opponents for lacking concrete detail. How will vandals and rioters now be brought to account?

How might France's towns and cities be better protected – especially since new mass demonstrations have been confirmed in a couple of weeks' time? Exactly how will destroyed businesses be compensated?

And when will a dialogue be established with students and teachers' bodies on the subject of education?

On Sunday the Secretary General of the CGT union, Sophie Binet, accused Macron of failing to address students' reservations, the cost-of-living crisis or the dwindling quality of public services in France.

He's apparently passed that baton to Prime Minister Lecornu. Yet he and his interior minister are charged by plenty of in France with being woefully ill-prepared and under-policed ahead of Saturday's multiple, scheduled protests.

For context, the president of France's lower house of parliament, Yaël Braun-Pivet, notes she wants to open an inquiry into exactly what happened this weekend and why.

"Things are dark in the city of light " was the graffiti I read daubed in red paint throughout a wall adjacent to a row of shattered shops in the French capital on Sunday night.

Macron is widely viewed here as a lame-duck president. He is on his way out. There's a hotly contested race under way to become his successor, with the vote scheduled in six months' time. The presidential candidate from the anti-immigration nationalist right (Marine Le Pen) and additionally the anti-capitalist left (Jean-Luc Melenchon) are vying to produce headlines.

That is adding to current tensions in France – in politics as well as on the streets. Parliament here is paralysed, deeply divided between three vying political blocks.

Then there are France's financial woes too. Investors are leaning hard on this country to obtain its spiralling public debt under control. But the French administration worries, if it cuts public services or welfare, yet more angry residents will pour out onto the streets.

What now, what next, is our country broken? You hear these questions a lot right now.

Individuals throughout France were shocked and troubled by Saturday's events. The images of tear-gassed towns, apparently unimpeded looters and burning public buildings have worried the nation.

While they worry concerning the future, their leading politicians seem, instead, to be passionately focused on finger-pointing; blaming one another for the volatility, plenty of passers-by I speak to express frustration that.

Macron and his prime minister blamed Saturday's violent chaos on radical far left groups and delinquents; hard left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon alleged administration "incompetence"; Marine Le Pen on the nationalist right. It likes to be seen as robust on law and order, posted a video seated in front of the French flag, giving a presidential-style address blaming the "Macronist administration that is out of steam, exhausted, and disoriented".

For the next two weeks, the French authorities hope for a bit of a respite. Students start their half-term break as of Monday.

But on 5 November, a cross-section of trade unions, plus France's disparate "yellow jacket" (gilets jaunes) movement that staged demonstrations for over a year in 2018 – during Macron's first term as president – have confirmed enormous protests. France is holding its breath.

Taken together, the developments around france' s government under pressure after weekend of widespread violence point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.