The Monument to the Republic in Paris’s Place de la République is covered in graffiti bearing far-left slogans, including “Death to fascists,” “ACAB,” and “Antifa,” on Oct. 18, 2026, a day after violent protests swept through the French capital. Etienne Fauchaire/The Epoch Times
PARIS—“Those who destroyed must pay, those who looted must repay, and those who sought to bring down the Republic will have to answer for it,” President Emmanuel Macron told the French in a televised address Sunday evening, a day after a nationwide protest against the cost of living collapsed into the worst rioting the country has seen in years.
Speaking of “a moment of extreme gravity,” Macron blamed the destruction on “seditious elements from ultra-left splinter groups, joined by many criminals,” and singled out the burning of Limoges Town Hall.
“How can French people do this to France?” he asked. “Tonight we all feel anger and shame.” He promised that shopkeepers “will not be left alone,” said prefects could ban “certain gatherings,” and warned that “the country needs order, not escalation.”
Hours earlier, spent tear-gas cartridges still littered Place de la République, where crews swept up glass around the Marianne monument, its stone base torn apart from projectiles.
Nearby, Yoni found the display pieces of his marble showroom, Pierres Exclusives, smashed. “We expected this kind of thing and had done everything we could to protect the shop,” he told The Epoch Times. “But here there was nothing to steal, only things to break.” A marble table worth 25,000 euros ($28,000) lay in pieces. “This morning, when we arrived, there were still people inside the store.”
In the 3rd arrondissement, pharmacist Fabien Carême stood amid the remains of his shop. “I don’t understand why anyone would ransack a pharmacy, which is, after all, a first point of care,” he told The Epoch Times, putting the lost stock alone at close to 150,000 euros. “They’ve cut off my little business, and for a long time.”
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Camille Michelin, whose optician’s shop Opti’Shop sells only French-made frames, spoke of “isolation and dismay.”
“It’s a company going in the right direction, and they loot everything, they smash everything,” he told The Epoch Times, estimating his losses at more than 50,000 euros. He and his three employees were inside until 5 p.m. Saturday as the crowd passed. “There were messages of hate, throat-slitting gestures aimed at us.”
The looting did not end with daylight.
By Sunday afternoon the Paris police prefecture had counted three more stores looted and 25 arrests, describing those detained as “essentially young people from the suburbs looking for looting opportunities.”
A boutique on Rue Beaurepaire was stripped in seconds. Hundreds of protesters gathered again at République. Police fired tear gas, brought in a water cannon, and sent in the CRS 8 riot unit while barricades of trash cans burned on Boulevard Voltaire and rental bikes went up in flames on nearby streets.
This is developing and will be updated.
