Macron rebukes foreign leaders over claims about France’s riots

Speaking to reporters in Doha on 21 October, Macron said leaders across the Atlantic and in the Middle East were using France’s unrest for their election campaigns. His criticism came after Trump invoked the riots as a warning to US voters. [3] [4] [5]

In a video clip broadcast by CNN on 20 October, Trump said France was “being conquered, looted, and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists, and communists”. He urged voters to look at France to see what was at stake in the US election. [5]

The violence in France is real. Demonstrations over living costs and underfunded schools were followed by vandalism, looting and clashes with police, according to the Associated Press. But AP reports that French authorities and police have not identified immigrants as the group responsible for the rioting. It says some radical far-left activists were behind some of the violence, but not all of it. [6]

Macron said he saw no visible foreign interference in the events on the streets, but accused people abroad of manipulating information about them afterwards. He said AI-generated images showed scenes that had never happened in France and suggested that leaders sometimes passed on such material. No specific image or instance of Trump or Netanyahu using one was identified in the accounts of his remarks. [3] [4] [6]

AP reports that Macron told journalists Trump’s comments were among those he meant. RTL and ANSA interpreted his remarks as also alluding to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; neither reported him naming Netanyahu. [3] [4]