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The charred remains of Limoges’ 19th-century town hall have become one of the defining images of France’s nationwide protests, exposing divisions over the demonstrations and the destruction they have caused, according to the BBC.
The building’s wooden clock tower collapsed into the flames, prompting widespread shock and anger. Mayor Guillaume Guérin, who took office six months ago, said he was in tears when he first saw the damage and described the public reaction as “legitimate and completely understandable”.
Flowers and sombre onlookers gathered at the entrance of the hall, a landmark many residents regard as the town’s most iconic and beautiful building. Guérin blamed the damage on the French hard left, “supported by rioters”. Two men, aged 66 and 34, have been arrested. Prosecutors say they have links to “radical-left networks”.
The conservative mayor said he had received a message of support from US Vice President JD Vance, but not from Emmanuel Macron, France’s outgoing president. “What happened here will have an influence on the upcoming presidential election. This country is not doing well at all,” Guérin said.
For weeks, hundreds of thousands of people, mostly young, have taken part in protests that have grown in size and scope. Demonstrations that began over the poor condition of high schools have expanded into wider frustration and anger about the difficulty and expense of everyday life.
France is also facing a daunting fiscal deficit, one of the largest in Europe, while political candidates across the spectrum say they have solutions ahead of presidential elections in six months. The centrist government has few solutions, no majority in the National Assembly and little time. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu visited Limoges on Friday evening.
Authorities have banned demonstrations in several cities and promised to increase police numbers over the weekend to prevent further rioting. In Limoges, they have announced overnight curfews and restricted gatherings in the centre to 10 people.
Many in Limoges said the town hall’s destruction went beyond acceptable protest, though some residents focused on the social grievances behind the demonstrations. “Of course it was really sad, it’s a symbol of the republic, but what is more important: a town hall or people living in poverty?” said Alexander, 24.
Alexander was among several students at the Lord John pub wearing a faluche, a colourful traditional French student beret. Many people there, chatting beneath the mist from their vapes, had taken part in the demonstrations the previous weekend.
Asked whether last weekend’s looting and fires, which reportedly caused €500,000 (£420,000) in damage in Limoges, strengthened his point, Alexander said: “For some people it’s a catastrophe and some things are not acceptable.”
Jade, a 19-year-old medical student, shared his view. “I think burning the town hall is sad, but it’s not the saddest part of the protests,” she said. She said she had to live on €300 a month and added: “I feel we are not respected as young adults.”
At Limoges’ imposing market halls, the town hall’s fate drew a different response. Their narrow timbers, set on studded steel girders and painted duck-egg blue, were built using the same engineering approach as the Eiffel Tower.
Jean Roger Faucher, 63, described the past week as “a week of chaos” he would like to forget. His family has run a fish stall in the region’s beef-producing area for more than a century. “It left us stunned,” he said. “I got married in the town hall, so it had an unimaginable effect on us.”
Faucher said he understood some of the protesters’ grievances but could not accept vandalism that put local residents’ lives at risk.
Among market traders tending displays of fresh produce and customers drinking coffee, there was a desire for the demonstrations to ease. “Of course, life is expensive!” said Pascale Vuylsteke, 59. “Life isn’t all a calm river, it’s complicated, but we grit our teeth and we work.”
Vuylsteke said she works 100 hours a week and struggles to understand why so many people have taken to the streets so readily.
Limoges has been a centre of social action before. In the 19th century, when the town hall was built, the growth of local industries, particularly porcelain, helped make the town a major centre of the French labour movement.
The city is once again at the centre of a political rupture. There is broad hope that the loss of a prominent piece of its history will steer demonstrations away from destruction and back towards debate, but with political polarisation continuing and further protests planned, that outcome is far from certain.
Additional reporting by Paul Pradier.
