France's Far Right Seeks Advantage After Riots Spread Across Country

Rioting broke out in cities across France on Saturday, Oct. 17, as demonstrations against rising living costs and declining public services escalated.

The National Rally was already ahead in the polls in October and presented itself as the party best placed to restore law and order, according to The New York Times. The unrest followed weeks of student-led disruption that had strained the government.

In early October, student protests expanded to more than 40 cities. France has 3,700 high schools, and conditions in those schools were at the center of the protests. Authorities deployed riot police in response to school blockades and street demonstrations.

Clashes between protesters and police occurred in Rennes, Lyon and Strasbourg. In Paris, police in riot gear clashed with demonstrators on Oct. 8 during high school protests. The high school and street protests added to a sense of crisis in France and roiled bond markets, according to Reuters.

National Rally leader Jordan Bardella set out his positions in a letter posted on the party's website. He listed restoring security and ending judicial impunity among his priorities, along with order in the streets and in public accounts and controlling immigration. In the same letter, he described the Union nationale as composed of the Rassemblement National and right-wing Republicans around Marine Le Pen and Eric Ciotti.

On Oct. 2, the party published a video titled 'Émeutes : nous rétablirons l'ordre dans les rues !' featuring Bardella. It later published a petition titled 'Émeutiers relâchés : pour un tournant pénal et migratoire'. In that petition, the party stated that more than 800 arrests were carried out by law enforcement mobilized across France.

The party also published a communiqué titled 'Emeutes à Avion : la responsabilité des autorités est écrasante'. Separately, in Paris, individuals targeted a barracks and attempted to force entry and set it on fire.