Macron Says Foreign Leaders Weaponised French Riots for Elections

French President Emmanuel Macron has blamed foreign leaders for capitalising on riots that swept France on Saturday, using the unrest to advance their own electoral interests.

Speaking during a Middle East visit, Macron did not name the leaders but characterised them as politicians "in campaign mode, whether here in the region or on the other side of the Atlantic". The remarks appeared directed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces parliamentary elections next week, and US President Donald Trump, whose mid-term polls are scheduled for next month. Macron said these leaders had been swayed by artificial intelligence-generated false videos depicting the riots.

In Doha, Qatar, Macron stated: "We had people claiming that we had been invaded by hordes of migrants and Islamists, which is completely false." He characterised their conduct as campaigning "at France's expense" by commenting on violence that erupted alongside cost-of-living protests.

Netanyahu responded on Tuesday through Israel's i24 channel, describing France, which holds Western Europe's largest Muslim population, as having experienced an "invasion of extremist Islam". Trump also blamed the riots on mass immigration, telling Macron to "close your borders and take control before it is too late".

The unrest affected Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Nice. Since the riots began, nearly 150 people have been detained and over 800 have faced court proceedings. The government conceded that police had "lost control" during the violence, which followed weeks of student action protesting high school conditions.

EU authorities are now investigating potential foreign online interference and disinformation surrounding the riots, the Financial Times reported. Security officials told the newspaper that pro-Russian and far-right social media accounts tied to earlier disinformation operations distributed violent footage to amplify disorder. Iran and Algeria are also suspected of involvement in certain messaging campaigns.

Researchers have documented fabricated news videos circulating on social platforms that closely mimic branding from legitimate French outlets such as Le Monde, Euronews and France 24. BBC Verify identified one widely circulated AI-generated image purporting to show an elderly couple robbed in Paris, tracing it to a small website. Sabrina Hania, director of Infos-Israel.News, told the BBC that her organisation created the image on 17 October using ChatGPT, shortly after a television journalist reported the alleged robbery. French prosecutors have found no evidence confirming the incident took place.