France bans protests in parts of Paris as Macron slams Trump

As France braces for more protests on Thursday, Paris police said participants will be banned from gathering at the Elysee presidential palace, the Bastille Square, both houses of parliament, and several tourist areas, including the Louvre and the Champs-Elysees.

The curfew is set to apply between 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) and 8 p.m. local time.

French authorities have sought to reassure the public after the country was swept by violent unrest last weekend. The ongoing crisis started with students protesting high prices and demanding education reform, but it soon escalated, with masked rioters looting shops and clashing with police. On Monday, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez admitted the authorities "lost control" and failed to anticipate the scale of the violence.

Violent unrest rocks France after nationwide protests

Large-scale protests are also expected in Paris this weekend. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has already pledged a "massive" security deployment for the event.

Trump blames 'migrants, jihadists, and communists'  for unrest

While the European nation has seen two relatively quiet nights in a row, images of burning cars, broken store windows and ransacked buildings have been used by politicians inside and outside of France to increase pressure on the current government, led by President Emmanuel Macron.

Notably, US President Donald Trump attributed the unrest to "migrants, jihadists, and communists," saying they had "conquered, looted, and burned (France) to the ground." While campaigning for the US midterm elections, Trump also said he had warned Macron about immigration, but the French president refused to close the borders.

Macron claims images of protest manipulated, triggering 'stupid' comments

While visiting Qatar on Wednesday, Macron fired back at Trump, implying that the US leader and possibly Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were trying to gain political capital from the unrest in France. Netanyahu also spoke of an "invasion of extremist Islam" earlier this week.

"There are people who campaign at France's expense — leaders who are in campaign mode, whether here in the region or on the other side of the Atlantic," Macron told reporters on Wednesday.

When asked if his comments were about Trump, Macron replied: "Among others."

President Macron urges distinction between protesters and vandals

He also said information about the crisis has been manipulated, including "AI-generated images depicting scenes that never actually happened." This, according to Macron, prompted comments that are "as unacceptable as they are stupid, from many people, including foreign leaders."

"We've had people claiming that we were invaded by hordes of migrants and Islamists, which is completely false,” Macron said.

Le Pen says Macron to blame for 'sad reality' of protests

Later on Wednesday, Macron's far-right rival Marine Le Pen sought to dismiss his account as "conspiratorial."

"The images we saw last Saturday are not generated by artificial intelligence: they show the sad reality of what France has become after 10 years of Macronist rule," said Le Pen.

The far-right leader is currently the favorite to win the 2027 presidential election in France, followed by far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon.

Edited by: Roshni Majumdar

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