Marseille Braces for More Unrest After Protests Give Way to ‘Apocalyptic’ Disorder

Thunder and lightning have boomed across Marseille following the weekend’s mayhem, illuminating the cracked windows and boarded-up doors of hundreds of businesses that were smashed as protests gave way to disorder.

France’s second city saw some of the worst violence as chaos gripped the country on Saturday. Local business leaders say more than 500 premises were damaged, and the majority looted.

A police union boss told the BBC that the weekend had been an “apocalyptic” hell for his colleagues. 118 officers were injured, representing more than a tenth of the national figure.

So far, 101 arrests have been made in the port city, a quarter of them children.

But by Monday, it was police who were most conspicuous on the city’s streets, not protesters. For eight hours, demonstrations and gatherings were banned in an effort to avoid a third consecutive day of disorder.

It seemed to work; the largest central gathering we witnessed was a posse of weather-beaten tourists trudging around the quayside.

Nonetheless, an overnight curfew for minors will come into force in parts of the city from Tuesday evening.

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Looting was reported across the city centre, including along La Canebière – Marseille’s equivalent of Paris’s Champs-Élysées – Rue Paradis, and at the Centre Bourse shopping centre. Businesses were also hit further afield, such as in the Grand Littoral and Le Merlan shopping malls to the north.

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“The Black Blocs provoked, and the youngsters took advantage to start looting,” Blaise said. “That created chaos, with police officers running right, running left, and in effect, we got overwhelmed.”

I put it to Blaise that the police had been accused of heavy-handedness with peaceful students but sitting back as the most violent protesters pillaged local businesses.

“That is not the case at all,” he replied, arguing that more police than students had been injured.

“Four thousand tear gas grenades were fired and then we ran out of ammunition. So at a certain point, you have no choice but to retreat.”

France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez – whose resignation in the wake of the riots was rejected by President Macron – travelled to Marseille on Monday evening.

He came to the City Hall, which was briefly occupied by protestors on Saturday, and met Marseille’s Socialist Mayor Benoît Payan.

Payan said he wanted answers from the government as to how the chaos was allowed to happen.

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