PARIS — The bravado of young looters who rampaged through French cities over the weekend is now playing out on social media, where they boast of their stolen goods and taunt the riot police. In one TikTok video, a young man with red eyes — apparently from tear gas — thanks Paris, using the slang “Paname,” and lists his loot: “I grabbed some new Under Armour.” He then addresses the CRS riot police: “You ran like that, guys, we wiped you out.” His sign-off: “Generation Z, respect.”
The videos, also circulating on X, capture a mood of defiance that contrasts sharply with the somber tone in government. On Monday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez admitted that police had lost control during the worst night of violence. “On Saturday, in some major cities, you couldn’t look shopkeepers in the eye after hundreds of shops had been looted and tell them we hadn’t lost control,” he said.
Nuñez acknowledged a “lack of anticipation” in the deployment of security forces. Around 60,000 police and gendarmes were on duty nationwide on Saturday — too few, he said, to handle the large crowds of rioters and looters on the fringes of the demonstrations. He offered his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron, who refused to accept it. The president has since demanded new tactics, as reported in our coverage of the political fallout.
Looting as a rational choice?
In a second video, a young man explains to an interviewer why he joined the looting. He says he was protesting fuel prices because his mother has a car, and that he took clothes and goods from a sports shop. “In the end, you save money by looting,” he says. Asked about his view of France, he replies: “I think France is racist, and we should all be equal.” He claims a restaurant turned him away earlier that day but let in “a French person.” When the interviewer asks whether looting will only reinforce the image of “the North African who steals,” he responds: “If we carry on like this, it’s going to be chaos.”
The weekend’s violence erupted against the backdrop of a nationwide protest against the cost of living. Around half a million people marched across France on Saturday, but the demonstrations degenerated into some of the worst civil unrest the country has seen in years. Town halls and shops were looted and set on fire, including the historic Limoges town hall, which was gutted by fire.
Damage in the hundreds of millions
In Paris, crowds of masked men in black hoodies yanked at metal shutters until they gave way, clearing shelves of cigarettes, sunglasses, clothes, jewellery and food, according to AFP journalists. Looters left a supermarket with bags stuffed with cakes, fruit juice and alcohol. Antique clocks disappeared from a small jewellery shop, and whole display racks of sunglasses vanished. Inside some shops, looters smashed cash registers onto the floor, only to find them empty.
More than 2,000 shops are expected to have been affected nationwide, according to Alain Di Crescenzo, president of the chamber of commerce. He put the damage at “hundreds of millions of euros.” The financial toll on shopkeepers is mounting, and many are now fighting back as they board up their storefronts.
More than 2,500 people were arrested, and almost 1,000 members of the security forces were injured. Protesters were hurt too, among them a demonstrator whose hand was blown off by a police crowd-control grenade. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said more than 2,330 people had been taken into police custody over the weekend, 70% of them adults.
The unrest has also rattled financial markets, with European markets dipping as investors weigh the impact on French businesses and government bonds. The government now faces tough questions about its ability to maintain order and address the underlying grievances that fueled the protests.
