Matyáš Barva
October 23, 2026
On Oct. 16, Marseille looked as it always does: a sunny city on the French Riviera, full of lively streets filled with bustling coffee shops and colorful ice cream shops. Tourists walked around the historic Old Port, taking pictures of the sailboats and the overlooking basilica Notre-Dame de la Garde.
But the atmosphere was eerie. Bright yellow posters hung on every wall calling for a protest in the Old Port, the next day at two o'clock. When walking through the poorer quarters, the yellow posters became pink, with the logo of La France Insoumise, France’s leftist party led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Nobody knew that the city's mayor, Benoît Payan, was negotiating with the country’s president and minister of the interior to get more law-enforcement officers into the city for the upcoming protest, since there was only one unit guarding the city.
In an interview for Franceinfo, Mr. Payan said that the prefect of Bouches-du-Rhones may not have realized the actual size of the city, and that one company of riot police would not be enough to handle the expected situation.
The mayor later shared his prior concern for the police station situated on Marseille’s busiest street, Le Canebiére: “I requested that it be protected. This wasn't the case, and obviously the rioters got in with ease, since there clearly weren't enough national police officers present this morning.”
On Saturday, the protesters managed to break into the police station. The atmosphere was tense; somebody picked up a brick and threw it at one of the windows of the station, and others followed. A scramble began to see who would manage to break the glass first.
Law-enforcement officers were standing on the same street, about 100 meters away. A rumbling could be heard through the street; riot police came storming, pushing away all protesters. They chased the crowd further away and used tear gas to keep them at bay.
By that point, it was too late; the police station was already destroyed, its windows broken and walls sprayed with revolutionary slogans.
The police station was not the only case of the riot police responding too slowly. About two hours later, the crowd of protesters stood in the Old Port, in front of the city’s town hall.
They started taking metal fences, tying them together with zip ties. The sound of metal scratching the street brought in more people. The town hall was now blocked off; most of the protesters were just standing around when somebody screamed, “Storm the hall!”
They took the remaining barricades and started pounding at the door; this lasted a few minutes. But with each hit, the door got weaker, eventually giving up. The protesters hesitated, but then ran into the building, vandalizing the interior and leaving their signature anarchist A on the wall.
This entire event lasted a few minutes before the same stomping sound got closer. With the snap of a finger, pellets of tear gas started flying the crowd’s way. Some picked them up and threw them back at the riot police; some kicked them into the sea; others ran. Leaving the white cloud, people were crying and sharing eye solutions to stop the burning.
Riot police managed to stop the rioters from further vandalizing the town hall, but the damage was already done. The same fences that were previously used to breach the door were now being used to block the doorway.
About 45 minutes later, a major clash occurred in the main part of the Old Port. A direct standoff between CRS and the protesters. It was hard to see through the amount of tear gas that was deployed at that moment.
Three CRS officers took cover behind the stone pillars of a building. They were being targeted heavily by a crowd of hundreds of protesters, standing about 20 meters away from them. Their colleagues were standing in the surrounding streets, with, presumably, their chief running between them.
One of them was apparently less experienced. He was handed a tear gas launcher and told to wait. With bricks and bottles flying his way, he was always pulled back by his colleague. When it was time to shoot, the other officer showed him how to position himself, then loaded his launcher. Multiple shells were shot, then again, and again.
They were surrounded; the desperation could be seen in their eyes. At this point, the protests had been going on for about 5 hours, and reinforcements were nowhere to be seen.
Firefighters, who were called to extinguish the numerous fires around that area, could be seen walking by. With little protection against the gas, they were completely red-faced and teary-eyed, trying to get back to a place where the cloud was thinner.
About two hours later, the police blockade was breached by the protesters. Law-enforcement officers ran to their vehicles in an attempt to flee the scene. The protesters were throwing rocks, bricks, bottles, anything they could find. Some picked up metal bars or road signs and hit the cars repeatedly, all while chanting: “Macron demission!”
There simply weren't enough officers to compete with the protesters’ numbers. This opened up the city to being vandalized even more than before. Rioters ran through the streets and looted stores, pillaged public property and set fires.
The situation was not out of hand the entire day, though. Earlier in the morning, riot police were holding protesters on the main street. The police charged the protesters on Le Canebiere after one of them attacked an officer. He was quickly chased down and pacified, though, with brute force. Other skirmishes occurred in the backstreets of the centre.
One of them was a standoff. A smaller gathering of protesters threw bricks at a group of law enforcement. One of the bricks hit an officer in the shin; he fell to the ground and screamed in agony.
A couple of streets away, a group of protesters was charged by the police, leaving two injured: one with a bloody face, the other with a bruise on his chest caused by a baton strike.
The tension was high; both the protesters and policemen were on edge, expecting the worst from each other.
The protesters also made it more complicated for the officials, even though banners with official meeting spots hung around the city.
In reality, Saturday’s protest began at 9 a.m., not 2 p.m., and it started with a march to the train station, not at the Old Port.
“I think it’s a good thing we are disorganized, because I see people everywhere in the streets, and the police can’t do anything. They didn't manage to trap us anywhere, and that keeps the movement going,” said a local psychology student.
Two members of the Gilet Jaunes movement, Lucy and Lina, agreed, saying that they [the Gilets Jaunes] didn’t post information on social media, because in the past, they would announce a protest spot and the police would be there ahead of time. You have to know people, because they send each other SMS messages regarding the meeting spots and times.
On Sunday, the minister of the interior, Laurent Núñez, admitted that the police “lost control.” He met with Marseille’s mayor on Monday and promised that he “will deploy a very significant police presence, which will certainly be larger than last Saturday's” during a press briefing.
As of Monday, 101 arrests were made in Marseille, of which 74 were adults and 27 minors. 29 law enforcement personnel were hurt in total, including 2 severe injuries.
Photo Source: Marie Sinivee
