Macron addresses France: those who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable, prefects can ban gatherings, and a second death is confirmed

The address came on Sunday evening, from the Elysee, to a country that had spent the day counting. President Emmanuel Macron condemned what he called the dissenters who looted and vandalized cities on the sidelines of protests over the cost of living, and he did not soften the language. Looking at these images, we have all asked ourselves: what was going through their minds? How can French people do this to France? Nothing justifies it, nothing explains it, nothing excuses it. Tonight, we all feel anger and shame.

He drew the line the government has drawn all weekend, between the marchers and the wreckers. Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of our compatriots demonstrated to state legitimate claims, he said. Never must we confuse the latter with those who destroyed and vandalized. He described the violence as the work of seditious elements from far left factions, joined by numerous delinquents, in CNN reporting of the address. Those who destroyed must pay. Those who looted must pay back. Those who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable.

The death toll is now two, and the second death changes the shape of the weekend. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said a police officer of 22 died after being struck by a third party vehicle in Nantes, about 250 miles southwest of Paris, CNN reported. The protester who died just north of Paris after a cardiorespiratory arrest is the death Paris police reported on Sunday morning. Nunez put detentions above 2,000 people and officers injured above 600, as of October 18. Updated Interior Ministry figures later put arrests at 2,397 and police and gendarmes injured at 997, seven of them seriously. The retail federation said about 1,500 businesses across the country were affected by the violence.

Macron also reached for the machinery of order and, in the same speech, admitted it had failed somewhere. Reuters reported he ordered a review to determine whether there had been failings in intelligence gathering or police preparedness before the protests, and that prefects and mayors will be empowered to ban certain gatherings where necessary. He asked the government to convene students, teachers, trade unionists, lawmakers and business leaders this week to produce concrete proposals, without saying what those proposals should be. On Sunday afternoon there was a foretaste of the argument to come: police fired tear gas at the Place de la Republique in Paris, where dozens had gathered after social media calls to continue the movement, and 42 officers were injured in the Sunday clashes there.

The criticism waiting for him is already written. A French newspaper editorial, quoted by Fox News, called his past reprimands of a police force he deemed insufficiently empathetic an indelible stain, and argued that a technocratic establishment had dismantled the safeguards that let a society remain standing. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu is set to meet the mayors of Paris, Lyon and Marseille, who have asked for reinforcements to repair the damage. Macron is in the final six months of his presidency. The address promised accountability for the streets. The review he ordered promises a reckoning, of some kind, for the state as well.

The picture with this story is an illustration, not a photograph.