French Police Sue Government as 937 Officers Injured in Riots

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France’s largest police union filed a lawsuit against the government this week, accusing political leaders of endangering officers deployed to contain four weeks of nationwide unrest. The legal action by Alliance Police Nationale marks a rare institutional fracture inside the French security apparatus just six months before presidential elections.

The union claims officers received contradictory orders and were publicly undermined by ministers expressing sympathy toward demonstrators. “Officers felt betrayed, abandoned, left to fend for themselves,” Walid Hrar, a police officer and union representative, told The Associated Press. He pointed to politicians encouraging civil disobedience, comparing the current rhetoric to the revolutionary tactics of 1789.

Since the demonstrations began, 937 police officers have been injured, according to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. The justice ministry reports nearly 8,000 arrests. Saturday alone saw 272 people detained after masked individuals threw fireworks at riot squads in Paris’s Place de la République, prompting tear gas and water cannon deployments.

Lecornu blamed the France Unbowed (LFI) party for exploiting student grievances over living costs and education funding. LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon attended a Paris protest this week, while party officials joined blockades in several cities. Marine Le Pen, the National Rally front-runner for the April and May presidential vote, countered by backing law enforcement and attributing all violence to the demonstrators.

Term-limited President Emmanuel Macron has struggled to project authority. Speaking Friday on the sidelines of the European Council summit in Brussels, he acknowledged a constitutional right to protest but demanded respect for property. Earlier, government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon said Macron ordered his cabinet to produce concrete responses within weeks.

The interior ministry opened 36 internal investigations into allegations of excessive force. Rights groups and student organizations maintain police escalated tensions unnecessarily.

Unrest spilled across borders Saturday. Several hundred young protesters clashed with police in Brussels and the Belgian city of Liège, citing rising higher education costs. Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quintin wrote on X that the events constituted organized violence designed to destabilize society, warning that all necessary means would be used to restore order. Peaceful solidarity gatherings occurred in Luxembourg and French-speaking Switzerland without arrests. Separate student protests over education took place in India this week, though authorities found no connection to the European movement.

Lecornu told Parliament that 149 teachers and school staff sustained injuries since the initial walkouts. French authorities expect a temporary pause in domestic mobilization as schools close nationwide until Nov. 2 for the Toussaint holiday.