President Emmanuel Macron hit out on Wednesday at what he called “unacceptable and stupid” comments by foreign leaders, including Donald Trump, about the riots in France allegedly being carried out by migrants.
Trump, whose Republican Party is facing midterm elections in two weeks, has repeatedly brought up the violence and looting in France since demonstrations spiralled on Saturday.
The US president warned voters to “just look at France”, blaming immigration for the violence and stating that “Paris is going to be a Muslim city very soon”.
Macron on Wednesday said there was no evidence that foreign interference had stoked the riots.
“However, there has been a foreign manipulation of information since then, and that has led to some unacceptable and stupid comments from many foreign leaders,” Macron told reporters on a visit to Qatar. He later specified that Trump “was among them”.
“We’ve seen AI images that show scenes that never happened in France. There are people who have stated that we were invaded by hordes of migrants and Islamists, which is completely false,” Macron said, hitting out at those who “campaign on our backs in some regions or on the other side of the Atlantic”.
“These people irritate me,” he added.
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Emmanuel Macron hits out at “unacceptable and stupid” comments by foreign leaders
The riots across France over the weekend marked some of the worst street violence in the country for years. A largely peaceful mass demonstration over the high cost of living and education funding descended into chaos when rioters attacked city halls and looted stores.
Macron and his government have come under fire for a lacklustre police response and for underestimating the size of demonstrations and the threat from the ultra-left groups authorities suspect of being behind some of the most violent acts, including the torching of a city hall in Limoges.
Ahead of new protests called for this coming Saturday, they have pledged a “massive” police presence and help from the army.
Macron, who was in the Middle East partly to shore up diesel supplies as high energy prices add to discontent, said: “People who want to sow disorder next Saturday will be stopped from sowing disorder.”
The French president then made an unscheduled stop in Riyadh later on Wednesday as part of his Gulf tour, where he was due to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Élysée Palace said.
Macron is the first western leader to visit Saudi Arabia since Iran-backed Houthi militants intensified their attacks in recent weeks, forcing Riyadh airport to shut. The visit was a mark of “solidarity”, the president’s office added.
Images of buildings on fire and a tear gas-ravaged Paris made front pages worldwide, but the riots also spawned misleading online content including widely watched footage of violent scenes that were not recorded in France. EU regulators are now probing· these possible disinformation campaigns.
Police made more than 2,000 arrests but have not made any explicit link to immigration or Islamist radicals.
That has not stopped several foreign leaders from weighing in. With Israelis set to head to the polls in legislative elections next week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday warned in an interview with i24 that France had “ceded to an invasion by Islamist extremists” as he lamented the destruction in Paris.
In Spain, where Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called a snap election for November, the leader of far-right party Vox, Santiago Abascal, this week blamed the “Islamist left” and “Sánchez’s allies” for what had happened in France.
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar also blamed immigration for the riots while defending his country’s tough stance, as did Polish PM 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 an entirely different world, people with hatred in their hearts, has shattered that once great country,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Sunday night.
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 election next spring with the race to succeed Macron after his two terms in office. Marine Le Pen of the far-right Rassemblement National is the frontrunner, and her party had gained in polls since Saturday’s riots, one first estimate showed, as it vowed to bring “order” to France.
Le Pen on Wednesday pointed to “chaos” under Macron on Franceinfo radio: “It’s a migratory chaos, a security chaos, a budgetary chaos.”