France’s justice minister announced Monday that dozens of people have been placed in pretrial detention following a weekend of widespread violence and looting, as authorities pledged an uncompromising legal response and acknowledged serious intelligence failures.
Speaking on France 2, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said 2,331 people were taken into police custody over the weekend, with 70 percent of them adults who were “very often known to police services.” More than 80 percent of those detained now face prosecution, he added.
Prosecutors Told to Seek Detention for Looters and Attackers
Darmanin said he had instructed prosecutors to seek pretrial detention for anyone who looted shops or attacked police officers, describing the judicial response as one of “immense firmness.”
“There are already dozens of pretrial detentions, including 13 in Marseille,” he said. “I gave instructions so that the criminal response would be one of immense firmness.”
Minister Concedes Intelligence ‘Failure’
The justice minister acknowledged that authorities had “incontestably failed” in the face of the violence that shook the country throughout the weekend, citing “a defect in intelligence.”
“French intelligence is top-level in the fight against Islamist terrorism, it is strong against organized crime, significant against foreign interference, but manifestly it does not know how to fight the ultra-left correctly,” Darmanin said.
He described far-left destabilization as a major future threat, warning that “in the years to come, one of the threats affecting our country will be ultra-left agitators who want to destabilize our institutions.”
Town Halls Sacked as Political Blame Intensifies
Town halls were ransacked or destroyed during the weekend, including in Marseille and Limoges. Darmanin again pointed to the political responsibility of La France Insoumise (LFI), accusing the radical left movement of seeking to destabilize institutions and of having “put a match to a barrel of gasoline.”
The government’s figures follow earlier announcements from the Interior Ministry, which reported 2,397 arrests and 997 police officers and gendarmes injured during Saturday’s mobilization.
