The riots and looting across France might have been supported by leftist radicals, but National Rally leader Marine Le Pen stands to be the greatest beneficiary when the dust eventually settles. Protesters, many of whom have been seen carrying Palestinian flags, have set fire to historic buildings and attacked civilians. Le Pen’s already…
Page A216From§Eachthe morning edition — 20 October 2026
France arrests hundreds over riots its own intelligence missed, and positions the far right to cash in.
As it ran on the front
I didn't put money in the Buick this week. Forty-one dollars for a fan belt at the parts place on Route 9, and Ray wants ninety more to put it on, so that's a hundred and thirty-one dollars sitting on a piece of paper on the shelf by the door until Friday, when I get paid. That's not me complaining. That's just the number.
I bring up numbers because France has been collecting a few of its own this month, and I've been writing them down in the same notebook, on different pages. On October 8th, high school students marched over the state of their own schools — 71,500 of them, the Interior Ministry's own count, as Common Dreams had it. Nine days later, on the 17th, a different march drew about 110,000 people, and out of that one the Paris police arrested 855 people — their own Sunday report's number. How many of those arrested, according to that same report, belonged to any group with a name?…
…(cont) Three days after that, on the 20th, French officials told CBS News they now had the name: an "ultra-left movement." That same week, Fox News had the same officials saying their own intelligence service hadn't seen any of it coming, and offering their resignations over it. I keep that page open next to the other one, on the workbench in the garage. If the movement was identifiable enough to put in a government statement on Monday, was it identifiable enough for the service whose entire job is knowing such things three days earlier?
By Monday the government had also put curfews on two districts of Paris. The New York Post had the arrest count by then at 2,400 across the whole country — a different number than the one Paris alone had given three days before — and 3,000 businesses damaged. The McDonald's on one of those boulevards got ransacked in that same stretch, Fox News reported, looters inside trying to cook fries on the equipment. And on the 20th, the same day as the curfews, the Washington Examiner ran a news story — not an editorial, a news story — saying Marine Le Pen "stands to be the greatest beneficiary when the dust eventually settles." Of everyone named this month — the ultra-left movement, the students, the looters in the McDonald's, Marine Le Pen — which one does any receipt say organized a single day of the nine between October 8th and the 17th?
I called Ray back while I was going through all this. He doesn't bill me for a part until he's had the hood open and looked at what's actually loose — he told me that himself, years ago, standing in the garage with the toolbox open on the bench between us. Has anything in what these officials said this week told us what they found when they opened their own file on the movement they named?
One more thing, before you let me go. I know I already used this number once, and I told myself I wasn't going to come back to it, so I'm sorry. On the 17th, the Paris police had a certain number of people in custody. On the 20th, the government had a name to put next to them. Three days between the count and the name. Which one came first on the page that matters, the number or the name — eight hundred fifty-five?
“They admitted their own intelligence missed this before they ever named anyone, then found 855 people to put cuffs on and a movement with no leader attached to pin it on. Funny how the only politician coming out ahead afterward is the one who didn't organize a single day of it. That's not a security failure, that's a redistribution of blame with the beneficiary already picked out.”
“You arrest 855 people, you need a name in the report by Monday — "ultra-left movement" is just paperwork, it's not an accusation, it's — okay, it is the accusation. And you really can't blame the intelligence service for missing a movement organized enough to riot but apparently not organized enough to track — forget I said that.”
Earlier in this story
- French officials blame the riots on the ultra-left, then admit their own intelligence failed to see them coming. By Lou · the evening edition, 19 October 2026
The receipts
Protests erupted throughout France on Saturday, with demonstrators citing a wide variety of grievances including inequality, the high cost of living, and poor conditions in the nation's schools. As reported by Agence France-Presse, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in Paris and other cities to protest what they said was inaction…
Paris police imposed overnight curfews in two districts after severe rioting damaged 3,000 businesses and led to 2,400 arrests across France.
French officials implemented local curfews Monday and said an "ultra-left movement" was behind widespread violence and vandalism amid anti-government protests.
High school students across France on Thursday once again took to the streets to protest against against the state of the country’s schools.
Some looters attempted to cook french fries inside a ransacked and wrecked McDonald's in Paris as protests spiraled into widespread destruction.
Police arrested at least 1,800 people across France after violent groups clashed with officers and looted shops during nationwide demonstrations that drew hundreds of thousands of people.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.