Free Republic

Rita Panahi @RitaPanahi: Terrible but sadly predictable. Was in Marseille earlier this week. Beautiful, vibrant but also in decay. You see more Palestinian flags than French ones.Oct 17, 2026 Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby: Men draped in Palestinian flags loot stores across France. What has France done to itself?Oct 18, 2026. Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby: Why is the media working so hard to avoid showing any Palestinian flags in the riots in France?Oct 19, 2026

Is Israel to blame again? French President Emmanuel Macron hinted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump were exploiting the riots in France for political purposes ahead of the upcoming elections. During a speech in Qatar, Macron referred to "leaders who are in the midst of election campaigns, whether here in the region or across the Atlantic, who are innocently spreading narratives that certain circles are clearly trying to promote," apparently referring to Netanyahu and Trump. Macron added, "They are using our country for their political campaigns. And we don't need that. We already have our own...

French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that foreign leaders — including those “on the other side of the Atlantic” — were seeking to exploit France’s tense social climate for political gain following a weekend of street violence and looting. Protests over soaring living costs have led to widespread rioting and looting that have drawn worldwide attention and shocked many French citizens. U.S. President Donald Trump has used the violence to rally his political supporters, making unsubstantiated claims that Muslim migrants are responsible for the unrest, and urging Macron to “close your borders and take control before it is too late!”...

Nationwide, about 89,000 police will fan out in the streets, an increase from 65,000 last weekend, when more than 130 people were injured and over 400 arrested as the protests degenerated into the worst street violence to hit the French capital in decades. In addition to the closure of the Eiffel Tower, many shops and museums across Paris, including the Louvre, the Orsay Museum and the Grand Palais, will be shut on Saturday for safety reasons. Music festivals, operas and other cultural events in the capital were canceled.

“The challenge that is ours is to invent a new grammar,” Macron said at one point in his remarks.