French President Emmanuel Macron has accused overseas leaders of exploiting the riots which erupted across the nation on Saturday for electoral functions.
Without naming them, he said they were campaigning for forthcoming elections “at France’s expense” with their feedback on the violence, which erupted on the fringe of cost-of-living protests.
Speaking on a go to to the Middle East, he referred to them as “leaders who are in campaign mode, whether here in the region or on the other side of the Atlantic”.
It was an obvious swipe at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces parliamentary elections next week, and US President Donald Trump, for whom mid-term polls fall next month.
Macron said the unnamed leaders had been influenced by pretend videos generated by AI about the riots.
Nearly 150 people have been jailed and more than 800 introduced before the courts since the riots which gripped Paris and other cities including Lyon, Marseille and Nice.
Video of operating battles between masked rioters and police, as nicely as property being destroyed and shops being looted, unfold across social media.
The authorities admitted the police had “lost control” during the violence, which came after weeks of protests by college students over circumstances in high faculties.
Macron vowed afterwards that the authorities would be “uncompromising” towards “agitators from ultra-left fringe groups”, which he blamed for much of the hassle.
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