How will violent unrest influence France's election?

Charlotte Gallagher (0:00)

This is The Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Charlotte Ganniger, and in the early hours of Monday, the 19th of October, these are our main stories. President Macron calls for calm after France is shaken by a weekend of violent unrest. We ask, how will this influence the upcoming election? A huge fire at a Canadian military base kills four people and injures dozens more. Tension as Brazil's left-wing president faces off with his rival on stage.

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President Macron has addressed the nation after one of the worst outbreaks of disorder in modern French history. He again called for calm and sought to draw a divide between peaceful protesters and the rioters he blamed for the destruction that's left many in France shocked. He pledged to bring those responsible for the violence to justice. People across the country spent much of Sunday cleaning up shattered shop fronts, burnt out cars, charred bikes, and piles of debris on the streets. Our correspondent, James Waterhouse, sent this report from Paris.

James Waterhouse (1:35)

One of the most evocative images from these protests has been of the 19th century town hall in Dimanche to the southwest being devoured by the flames. The blame for this destruction of French history, heritage has been squarely aimed at a violent minority of demonstrators. In Paris and beyond, half a million people had filled cities across France to protest over the future of their country.

They were mostly peaceful, but as we saw in the capital, in the wings were those who wanted to take advantage of the disorder. And when the early evening arrived, they did.

The police seemed to retreat in the face of what ministers are calling an organized network. It was at 5 p.m. when this electric bike shop was plundered. With no one to stop them, dozens of masked looters made several trips as they emptied the stock, even taking the time to browse.

SPEAKER_4 (2:30)

Just so he pushed here, then he cut here.

James Waterhouse (2:33)

The owner, Hassan Ahmed, explains what he's lost.

Hassan Ahmed (2:38)

100,000 plus, it's my life, whole life here. I don't know, I don't know what I do.

James Waterhouse (2:44)

With the arrival of daylight, it became apparent how the rioters didn't discriminate with who or what they targeted.

SPEAKER_6 (2:52)

We felt completely safe with the gates closed.

And then we heard the gates being lifted from all sides. I don't know if someone hit me or how it happened, with an iron bar, I think.

SPEAKER_7 (3:03)

They set the fire in the shop at the ground floor with people living just upstairs. Everything is closed because it's smashed.

James Waterhouse (3:09)

And you've seen protests before, France has seen protests before, but have you seen this damage before?

SPEAKER_7 (3:14)

Never, never. And I'm going to be very honest. I have been scared.

James Waterhouse (3:19)

President Macron addressed the nation.

Pierre-Antoine Denis (3:21)

Watching these images, we all asked ourselves, what are they thinking? How can French people do this to France?

Those who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable.

James Waterhouse (3:34)

Upcoming presidential elections will determine France's future course, but this chapter has exposed the strength of feeling over the challenges this Republic faces and the depth of division on how to overcome them.

Charlotte Gallagher (3:48)

The response from political figures across the spectrum has highlighted those deep divisions ahead of the presidential election in April. Our reporter Pierre-Antoine Denis told me the government's failure to control the protests could help the far right and the far left at the polls.

Pierre-Antoine Denis (4:05)

There's been failure in the intelligence. There's been failure in the planning of these protests, definitely, when it comes to Saturday.

And I think, overall, there is a failure when it comes to the state and its response to the protests that were led by pupils on the suburbs of Paris back in September. How it all evolved and brewed into the scenes that we saw on Saturday, obviously, there will be questions as to how the government responded to this, may have added fuel to the fire, and essentially created the situation and the perfect storm for all these protests. And I think everyone will be fairly confident in condemning this violence, talking about how this has gone way too far. But the problem remains that these protests and the demands from these protesters have not been met yet. So this is a watershed moment for the country. It's impossible to talk about what happened at the weekend without talking about the violence. In its eight-minute address, Emmanuel Macron mostly talked about the violence, mostly talked about how the republic will stay strong, the state will not yield to the violence and to the protesters. So it will be important for the protesters now, for the students who have been leading that movement, to control the narrative again, to be in charge of the narrative again, unless they distance themselves quite heavily from the violence, then their messaging will be completely forgotten.