{"id":48400,"date":"2026-10-19T11:43:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T09:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=48400"},"modified":"2026-10-19T11:43:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T09:43:55","slug":"france-president-urges-calm-as-the-country-counts-cost-of-worst-unrest-in-years","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/france-president-urges-calm-as-the-country-counts-cost-of-worst-unrest-in-years\/","title":{"rendered":"France President urges calm as the country counts cost of worst unrest in years"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"x_divRplyFwdMsg\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">President Emmanuel Macron appealed for calm on Sunday, a day after France suffered one of its worst days of unrest in \u200cyears, with thousands arrested and shops looted or damaged after protests over high prices and declining public services.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Fresh clashes broke out in Paris and Marseille, where riot police intervened to prevent attempts to ransack businesses.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Nationwide demonstrations had erupted into riots on Saturday, with a town hall torched, shops pillaged and buildings covered in graffiti as violent groups clashed with police in cities across the country.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;Looking at these images, we have all asked ourselves: What was going \u200bthrough their minds? How can French people do this to France?&#8221; Macron said in a televised address to the nation.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;Nothing justifies it, nothing explains it, nothing excuses it. Tonight, \u200bwe all feel anger and shame.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Saturday&#8217;s unrest laid bare the deep anger at Macron, who leaves office in 2027 after a decade in power \u2060that has increasingly become defined by social discontent, a weak economy and ballooning debt.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Macron said those protesting peacefully had legitimate grievances and their actions should not be confused with those seeking to wreak \u200bhavoc.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20315,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-48400","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"President Emmanuel Macron appealed for calm","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48406,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48400\/revisions\/48406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=48400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}