Emmanuel Macron rejected the resignation of his Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, according to the Élysée Palace, despite the French President—who is facing pressure following the violence on the sidelines of the weekend protests—acknowledging on Monday the existence of "failures in anticipation and intelligence gathering."
The Élysée Palace stated that "the Interior Minister submitted his resignation to the President of the Republic on Sunday, but the President rejected it, given the need for continuity in the leadership of security forces under the current circumstances."
The same source added that "the President tasked the Interior Minister with taking all necessary measures to transparently uncover the failures in anticipation and intelligence gathering that led to the outbreak of violence."
A number of opposition representatives, particularly from the far-right, had demanded on Sunday the resignation of Nuñez, who has held his position for only one year.
The French presidency added that Macron asked Nuñez to "implement new operational methods for internal security forces on the ground as soon as possible to confront vandals," with the aim of "putting an end to the phenomena of erecting barricades and acts of looting."
French authorities are seeking to contain the anger and concerns resulting from their management of the anti-cost-of-living protests, which turned into unprecedented violence on Saturday, signaling a potential political crisis.
Saturday's events resulted in the arrest of about 2,400 people, and nearly 1,000 security personnel were injured, according to authorities.
The Interior Minister is scheduled to travel on Monday to the coastal city of Marseille in southern France, which was one of the cities most affected by the violence, where authorities estimated the number of participants in the looting on Saturday at about 30,000 people.
