By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-10-19 13:41:14 | Updated at 2026-10-19 20:33:01
11 hours ago
A leading French mayor has called for the government to open up terror investigations into the urban youth riots over the weekend, and to ban far-left militant groups like Antifa.
Éric Ciotti, the Mayor of Nice, France’s fifth largest city, said that the unrest seen throughout the country over the weekend, which included widespread attacks on police, mass looting, and arson attacks on government buildings, should be treated by prosecutors as terrorism, while warning that “Islamo-Leftism” is seeking “to overthrow” the Republic.
“The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office needs to step in and track down these far-left groups—these coordinated, organized structures that seek to attack the institutions of the Republic. It’s clear that institutions were targeted—not just in other cities, but here in our own city as well. They attempted to attack the town hall, for instance, and they also targeted police stations,” the Nice Mayor told broadcaster BFMTV.
The leader of the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) party and ally of National Rally presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said that France is facing a “hybrid phenomenon” in which the far-left is coordinating and fuelling riots from a “mix of Islamists and drug traffickers, or ‘narco-Islamists’,” and lower level “armed robbers”.
“We are facing a red fascism, a French Intifada, a form of insurrection where Islamists, Antifa members, rioters, and looters—remotely controlled by the far left with terrorist aims—converge,” he said referencing the Palestinian terror campaigns against Israel, adding that there are “more Palestinian flags than French flags” at the demonstrations.
Specifically pointing to Antifa and its “ultra-left” affiliates, Ciotti said: “We must pursue these groups to the very end, and any associations that support them should be dissolved.”
The Macron government and the police have both pointed to the far-left La France Insoumise (France in Rebellion/LFI) of radical presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon as having stoked the riots and manipulated the youth movement, with top party figures including its 75-year-old leader appearing at previous demonstrations. The far-left party also has open ties to Antifa-linked groups, including the banned Young Guard, which was founded by an LFI lawmaker.
The UDR Mayor said that rioters who attacked police should all face jury trials, that the government should build emergency prison spaces to incarcerate all those involved in the riots, and for the social benefits and state housing to be withdrawn from the families of those involved.
Ciotti also called for the next scheduled demonstration on November 5 to be banned by the government, arguing that “after the looting, the attacks on our police officers, and the damage to our institutions, we cannot take the risk of further violence… the Republic must enforce its authority!”
According to the French Ministry of the Interior, there were 2,397 arrests on Saturday and 997 police officers and gendarmes were injured.
PARIS, FRANCE – OCTOBER 17: Protesters participate in a march against the high cost of living in Paris as part of nationwide demonstrations in France, on October 17, 2026. (Photo by Firas Abdullah/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Nice Mayor was not the only leading politician to call on the government to take extraordinary measures to quell the unrest. Former Interior Minister and presidential candidate for the centre-right Les Républicains Bruno Retailleau on Sunday urged President Emmanuel Macron to call a state of emergency.
“It is the authority of the State that is being challenged, everywhere, all at once,” the LR senator said. “Faced with diffuse violence, simultaneous across the entire territory and likely to continue night after night, ordinary means are no longer sufficient.”
Retailleau said that a state of emergency would allow local governments and police to “act in advance, rather than merely taking stock afterward” by taking measures like imposing curfews, banning gatherings likely to turn violent, place identified ringleaders under house arrest, imposing identity checks, and to ban groups from public organising.
“The state of emergency must be accompanied by a firm and swift criminal response: immediate court appearances, detention for those who have assaulted police officers, gendarmes, firefighters, and elected officials, and accountability for perpetrators as well as the families of minors. The French expect the State to protect them, by all means necessary,” he said.
So far, President Emmanuel Macron has largely refused to clamp down on the near month-long protest movement which was ostensibly started over supposed failings of the education system but which quickly devolved into simple mayhem, providing an excuse for youths from multicultural communities to engage in wanton violence, destruction, and looting.
Macron also faced criticism for failing to acknowledge the role that immigration has played in the riots. Presidential candidate Éric Zemmour said that it was clear that migrant groups were behind much of the unrest, saying: “We see their faces, we hear their voices, we recognize their language… We know who they are, we know where they come from.”
Zemmour surmised that they were motivated “by a hatred of our country and by a desire for revenge for colonialism” rather than the stated goals of the protests.
