Macron refuses interior minister's resignation after violent protests

French President Emmanuel Macron has refused Interior Minister Laurent Nunez's offer to resign after police lost control during violent protests on Oct. 17.

Nunez acknowledged that police had "lost control" during the unrest, and offered to step down. Macron declined, saying Nunez should stay to ensure the chain of command is maintained within police and security forces, Al Jazeera.

On Oct. 19, Macron said security "failures" led to the violence. He asked Nunez to establish new methods to deal with looters and to ensure transparency over failures in planning and intelligence that preceded the unrest.

More than half a million people took part in demonstrations across France on Saturday. About 60,000 law enforcement personnel were deployed. The demonstrations erupted into riots in which a town hall was torched, shops were pillaged and buildings were covered in graffiti, according to U.S. News.

More than 2,300 people were arrested on Saturday and almost 1,000 police and gendarmes were injured. Nationwide, more than 2,330 people were taken into police custody over the weekend, 70 percent of whom were adults. One protester had a hand blown off by a police crowd-control grenade.

Unrest continued into Sunday. About 350 people were arrested in Paris on Sunday and overnight, and Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said about 30 shops were targeted in the capital on Sunday.

The weekend demonstrations brought together students protesting educational conditions and groups protesting high cost of living and faltering public services. On Sunday, Macron condemned the "unbridled" violence in the cost-of-living protests.

The violence has brought calls for Nunez's resignation and criticism of the executive over its crowd-control strategy. The cabinet was set to hold an emergency meeting over the unrest.