By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-10-18 14:31:25 | Updated at 2026-10-19 15:02:44
1 day ago
Comfortably smug leftist French President Emmanuel Macron drew a massive public backlash after attending a Céline Dion concert in Paris with his wife Brigitte on Friday night as fiery riots continue to roil the country.
Critics called the leader aloof, out-of-touch, and disengaged as he and his wife sang and clapped along to the Canadian singer in Paris at the Plénitude Arena.
They enjoyed a private box on the occasion while seemingly oblivious to the chaos unfolding across France as fury with his impotent government spilled onto the streets.
Meanwhile the country was going up in flames, as Breitbart London reported, with organised mass looting, widespread clashes with police, and vandalism a feature of the mass unrest along with arson of government buildings.
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.
Lina Bernard, an organiser of a protest rally in Paris, told the Mail on Sunday the couple “were acting like Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette” – both of whom were executed in the 1789 revolution with brought down the French monarchy.
She added: “They appear to think that there is no problem with anything.”
As of Saturday night, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said some 400 people were arrested nationwide over the previous 48 hours.
Nuñez said 110 marches drew about 550,000 people across the country. Organizers, including the CGT labor union and students’ organizations, said about 800,000 demonstrators took to the streets.
AP reports Nuñez described troublemakers as “extremely violent, radical far-left groups” whom, he said, “sought confrontations with police and targeted public buildings, including city halls and local government offices.”
He said those groups have been joined by offenders willing to loot shops. Most of those arrested are adults, he added.
A protester wrapped in a French national flag stands in front of Lyon’s tourism office set on fire during a demonstration in Lyon, southeastern France, on October 17, 2026 as part of a nationwide mobilisation driven by angry leftist protesters. (Jeff PACHOUD / AFP via Getty)
In Paris, police fired tear gas and water cannons to push back people wearing hoods and masks and throwing fireworks, paving stones and other objects at officers in the Place de la République, northeast of the Paris city center.
Macron will leave office next year and polls suggest April’s presidential election could come down to a fight between the leader of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the hard-left La France Insoumise party.
