I just wrote about the collapse of Cuba’s government and now I’m essentially writing the same story except this time it’s about France. Rioting and looting in France have continued in connection with “peaceful protests” involving tens of thousands of people.
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched in France on Saturday, with largely peaceful rallies giving way to clashes in Paris and Marseille as night fell despite a huge security operation aimed at preventing a repeat of last week’s unrest…
The main demonstration took place on the southeastern fringes of Paris, where at least 110,000 people turned out to denounce rising living costs and growing inequality.
The atmosphere deteriorated sharply after the rally ended. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannon at a group of around 500 hooded youths before they eventually dispersed on a cold, rainy evening.
In France’s second city, Marseille, youths set fire to rubbish bins to block roads, and hurled rocks and bottles at security forces. Police said several stores, including two jewellery shops, were ransacked.
Clashes also flared in Lyon, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand, Lille, Rennes, Nantes and Toulouse.
They broke out water cannons in Paris:
Water cannon deployed in Paris https://t.co/oLUJMb0OkD
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) October 24, 2026
A wild melee with police:
Riots in Paris tonight https://t.co/yWRwBBdk9v
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 24, 2026
And in Marseille there were riots:
🇫🇷BREAKING: Riots have broken out in Marseille. The riot police have been forced to retreat. https://t.co/sNMHHQ7JYw
— Trumpusa1 (@Trumpusa1A1) October 25, 2026
And looting:
WAKE UP CALL:⚠️🇫🇷Macron’s “students” needed a Rolex to help them study better. Marseille, Rolex and Louis Vuitton looted and destroyed by rioters. Look what they did to Marseille …
Rolex and Louis Vuitton completely destroyed, windows broken, shelves empty, boxes on the floor. Everything stolen, everything destroyed by the rioters. And then they tell us it’s not the left’s fault. This is the France of the Left-Islam alliance. First they destroy everything and then they pretend nothing happened. https://t.co/QocKQDs7kx @EmmanuelMacron #EmmanuelMacron #macron @roysingham #roysingham #singham #france #rioter #funding #palestine #socialist #muslim #islam #extremist #sharialaw #muslimbrotherhood #jihad #taqiyya #ANTIFA #arson #riot #houthis #mortors #macron #disaster— Sergeant News Network 🇺🇲 (@sgtnewsnetwork) October 25, 2026
In all, more than 1,300 people were arrested nationwide and several dozen police officers were injured.
Police made 1,314 arrests in nationwide protests in France, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said Sunday, after demonstrations over the high cost of living and the country’s education system earlier in the day remained largely peaceful.
Nuñez said 53 officers were hurt in marches. He said on Saturday marches “passed off well” in cities, but police officers found themselves confronted with “an extremely elevated level of violence” from “ultra-left” groups later in the day.
The government is responding by trying to give the people what they want, which is more free stuff.
France’s government pledged Monday to replace its national online university admissions platform, seeking to quell student anger after weeks of often violent mass protests over education and living costs.
Higher Education Minister Philippe Baptiste announced “substantial change” to the platform next year, before its replacement in 2028.
Ministers also pledged up to 4 billion euros ($4.5 billion) in loans for school renovations, alongside smaller classes, more teaching and higher education posts and increased student grants.
The real problem here was highlighted by a French CEO.
Speaking on “The Faulkner Focus,” Brivael Le Pogam blamed decades of left-wing policies for what he described as growing unrest and declining public services in France.
“Right now, we are just seeing the dead end of socialism,” Le Pogam, CEO and co-founder of Argil AI, said.
“It’s super sad, and it’s purely chaotic right now. And I think, so, basically there is a lot of different causes, but mainly, for me, it’s the consequences of socialism.”
Officially, France is a mixed-market social democracy like most of Europe. But there are quite a few genuine socialists in power, all of them promising more affordability via more government money.
What’s happening in France is both familiar and new. It’s familiar in that mass protests are endemic to France. They happen every few years when a feckless government tries to balance the books by reforming France’s ruinously generous public benefits. What’s new is the addition of foreign influence and the scale of the violence.
The high-schoolers who kicked off this round of protests are angry about class sizes, dilapidated schools, and access to college. Retirees who joined them say state pensions aren’t enough to live on. Everyone complains about the high cost of living. They all want more state spending to cure their ills…
Many of France’s major cities are run by socialists. Marseille’s mayor, Benoit Payan, blames the French government for failing to protect city hall—where his own office is—and local stores. He wants Paris to pay for all the damage. Once again, the French taxpayer is on the hook.
The problem is the same one that countries leaning into socialism always experience. Sooner or later, there is no more money.
France’s checkbook is tapped out. It hasn’t balanced a budget in 50 years, and this year’s deficit is over 5%. Economic growth is under 1%. Diesel costs about $10 a gallon. National debt is 120% of GDP, and the bond market is getting nervous.
Like other developed countries, France’s fertility rate is below replacement, and the country has allowed in millions of immigrants from its former colonies. On balance, these new arrivals and their children have a lower employment rate than native French, but they get the same social services. Those numbers don’t work, no matter how smart the president in Paris.
The rioters and looters can all keep making demands but there’s no more money to give them at this point. Most of it is already being given away to someone else, probably a pensioner who isn’t working.
Nearly a third of some French ministries’ budgets pay for the pensions of retired civil servants, squeezing out spending on other priorities such as education, a government report said, amid protests over underfunded schools.
The report, a 250-page annex to the finance bill, is the first to break down retirement costs for each ministry and comes amid growing political attention towards the cost of France’s rising pensions bill.
It shows that 32% of the education ministry’s budget, or €28.5 billion ($32 billion), ends up with the special pension account that funds state civil servants’ pensions.
“The Ministry of Finance has just dropped a real bombshell,” economist Maxime Sbaihi with think tank Institut Montaigne said on X.
“In the midst of a day of protest, France has learnt that a third of the budget allocated to the national education system does not actually go towards education,” he added.
So France can’t afford better schools because it’s too busy paying for all the retirees. Bill Maher made this point on his show over the weekend and pointed out that the “affordability” riots will likely be coming here soon and when they do the socialists will claim the problem is capitalism, not overspending.
Editor’s Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it’s spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there’s nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.
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