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President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday denounced what he called “unacceptable and stupid” comments from foreign leaders, including Donald Trump, about riots in France allegedly led by migrants.
Trump, whose Republican Party faces midterm elections in two weeks, has repeatedly spoken of the violence and looting in France since Saturday’s protests skyrocketed.
The US president warned voters to “look only at France”, blaming immigration for the violence and declaring that “Paris will very soon be a Muslim city”.
Macron said Wednesday there was no evidence that foreign interference fueled the riots.
“However, since then there has been foreign manipulation of information, which has led to unacceptable and stupid comments from many foreign leaders,” Macron told reporters during a visit to Qatar. He later clarified that Trump “was among them.”
“We have seen AI images that show scenes that never happened in France. There are people who claimed that we were invaded by hordes of migrants and Islamists, which is completely false,” Macron said, attacking those who “campaign behind our backs in certain regions or on the other side of the Atlantic.”
“These people annoy me,” he added.
The weekend riots that hit France were some of the worst street violence the country has seen in years. A largely peaceful mass protest against the high cost of living and education funding descended into chaos when rioters attacked city halls and looted stores.
Macron and his government have been criticized for a lackluster police response and for underestimating the scale of the protests and the threat from ultra-left groups believed to be behind some of the most violent acts, including the burning of a town hall in Limoges.
Ahead of new demonstrations planned for next Saturday, they promised a “massive” police presence and help from the army.
Macron, who was in the Middle East in part to shore up diesel supplies as high energy prices add to discontent, said: “People who want to cause disorder next Saturday will be prevented from causing disorder.” »
The French president then made an unscheduled stopover in Riyadh later Wednesday as part of his Gulf tour, where he was due to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Élysée said.
Macron is the first Western leader to visit Saudi Arabia since Iran-backed Houthi militants intensified their attacks in recent weeks, forcing Riyadh’s airport to close. This visit is a mark of “solidarity”, added the presidency.
Images of burning buildings and a Paris ravaged by tear gas made headlines around the world, but the riots also gave rise to misleading content online, including widely viewed images of scenes of violence that were not recorded in France. EU regulators are now investigating these possible disinformation campaigns.
Police made more than 2,000 arrests but made no explicit links to immigration or Islamist radicals.
This did not prevent several foreign leaders from intervening. As Israelis head to the polls for parliamentary elections next week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned in an interview with i24 on Tuesday that France had “given in to an invasion of Islamist extremists” as he deplored the destruction in Paris.
In Spain, where socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called early elections for November, the leader of the far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, this week blamed the “Islamist left” and “Sánchez’s allies” for what happened in France.
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar also blamed immigration for the riots while defending his country’s hardline stance, as did Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Trump and his vice president JD Vance were among the quickest to seize on the French protests. “France is burning! The immigration of people from a completely different world, of people with hatred in their hearts, has destroyed this once great country,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform Sunday evening.
On Monday, he told reporters: “Emmanuel should have closed his borders a long time ago. I told him to do it.”
France faces its own high-stakes elections next spring with the race to succeed Macron after his two terms. Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally is in the lead, and her party has gained in polls since Saturday’s riots, according to an initial estimate, as it pledges to bring “order” to France.
Le Pen pointed out on Wednesday on Franceinfo the “chaos” under Macron: “It’s migratory chaos, security chaos, budgetary chaos.”
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