Morning opening: Macron declines offer of interior minister's resignation after weekend riots
French president Emmanuel Macron has declined interior minister Laurent Nuñez’s offer to resign after widespread riots over the weekend, despite “failures in anticipation and intelligence” that were deemed to worsen the crisis engulfing the country.
Macron said Nuñez should stay to ensure a chain of command is retained within the police and security forces, and has also asked Nuñez to set up as quickly as possible new approaches to deal with looters, the Élysée Palace added, quoted by Reuters.
Macron has asked the minister to “put in place new operational methods for security forces” to get a grip over the crisis.
Saturday, one of the most violent days of unrest in years, left public buildings burned, hundreds of shops destroyed and looted and at least 2,400 people arrested in cities across the country.
In a TV interview on Monday, Nuñez admitted that the police “lost control” in some cities during the protests.
In an address to the nation last night, Macron criticised “unbridled violence”.
“Watching these images, we have all asked ourselves how could French people do this to France?” he said.
I will bring you more updates on this today.
Separately, I will also be keeping an eye on Ukraine, after another night of heavy attacks by Russia killing at least one and injuring eight people, and with conflicting reports about whether Kyiv authorities had been warned about the strikes.
We should also get an update from Sweden, as the parliament’s speaker is set to decide on the next step in the government formation process there.
I will bring you all the key updates here.
It’s Monday, 19 October 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.