By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-10-19 13:41:13 | Updated at 2026-10-19 20:33:43
10 hours ago
French President Emmanuel Macron touched down in Kuwait on Monday morning to begin a three-day tour of the Gulf, thus fleeing a country being torn apart by riots and civil unrest.
Le Monde reports retreating Macron rushed to the airport and began his trip just hours after slamming France’s “unbridled” violence in a stern national address late on Sunday.
The President of the Republic acknowledged security and intelligence failures but refused his interior minister’s resignation after more than 2,500 people were arrested in some of France’s worst violence in years, with town halls and shops looted and set on fire, as Breitbart News reported.
Macron also did not admit to any personal failings after his government failed to foresee or prevent some of the most destructive riots in recent memory, instead singling out others as a target for his finger-waving admonitions.
On Friday night, just before the latest round of riots began, the president was seen in a private box alongside his wife as they clapped and sang along at a concert featuring Canadian singer Celine Dion in Paris.
One furious demonstrator likened Macron, 48, and Brigitte, 78 to Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, the French king and his wife who were executed in the 1789 revolution while others said he looked – and acted – like Nero.
Meanwhile the country was going up in flames with organised mass looting, widespread clashes with police, and vandalism a feature of the mass rioting along with arson of government buildings.
Now he is in OPEC member Kuwait where he was welcomed by the emir, Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Le Monde report notes.
The leftist leader will visit the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar for three days with energy security expected to feature prominently as France seeks to ease pressure on fuel supplies and prices.
Macron is accompanied by senior executives from France’s two biggest energy groups, TotalEnergies and Engie.
