# 95% of arrests in French riots are men, 70% are adults: Justice Minister

By Libby Emmons · Published 2026-10-20 · News & Analysis › World · https://humanevents.com/news/95-of-arrests-in-french-riots-are-men-70-are-adults-justice-minister

> At least one of those who were arrested was a far-left Antifa militant known to police who is a suspect in the arson of the Limoges City Hall.

There's a distinct effort among the progressive ruling classes to insist that the recent and potentially ongoing riots in France are being carried out by young people who are angry about education resources and the cost of living. France's Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin, however, said that of those arrested, 95% were men and 70% were adults.

Thousands of arrests have been made following a weekend of violence and extreme property damage that saw a 143-year-old [City Hall in Limoges](https://humanevents.com/2026/10/17/leftist-rioters-torch-destroy-143-year-old-town-hall-in-france-as-400-agitators-arrested) burned to the ground, 3,000 shops targeted, vandalized, and looted, cars burned, and people beaten up. 700 people, Darmanin said, will be tried over the next few days.

[View on X](https://twitter.com/libbyemmons/status/2112537549566849280)

He also revealed that the arrests include "people from immigrant backgrounds, people who are foreigners, but there are also people who are fully integrated and who are French." At least one of those who was arrested was a [far-left Antifa militant](https://humanevents.com/2026/10/20/breaking-antifa-arsonist-arrested-for-torching-limoges-city-hall) known to police who is a suspect in the arson of the Limoges City Hall.

[54 groups](https://humanevents.com/2026/10/19/revealed-54-communist-socialist-and-muslim-organizations-are-backing-french-riots) were cited as having been backing and organizing the riots and protests. These were primarily not youth-led groups, but far-left Antifa and Muslim groups that sought to cause mayhem.

However, he went to great lengths to excuse the demonstrators and focus on those who he said had infiltrated those demonstrations. "After the ultra-left movements, there were demonstrations that went more or less correctly everywhere on the national territory. These acts of violence must not betray the demonstrators either—those who, in the high-school movement, in the movements for purchasing power, wanted to tell the government what they thought, and that is entirely legitimate in a democracy. Those demonstrations went rather well," Darmanin said, per an AI translation of his [interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_3r9jNuPeA) with the French press.

"Then afterwards, around 4 or 5 pm," he went on, "then all evening, then all night, looters, and Sunday again, the night before last. Exactly—looters, or people who attacked police officers, people who attacked… there was a bit of everything. And 95% were men."

"We must still tell all French people that this is delinquency, criminality that was male," he said. "95% men. There were minors of 13, sometimes 15, 16 years old, but there were also many adults, a majority of adults—70% adults in these arrests. There was a bit of everything: people from immigrant backgrounds, people who are foreigners, but there were also people who are perfectly integrated, who are French. There was a bit of everything in the arrests that the police made."

When asked if "opportunistic delinquency" was to blame or if those who rioted were just "racailles," a term meaning rowdy rabble-rousers, Darmanin said he believed they were delinquents and cited his own background of a mother who was an immigrant coming to France. He said tamping down on demonstrations was not something he would suggest doing. "We don't need a state of emergency," he said, via translation, "we don't need to deprive all French people of their individual freedoms because of a few thousand delinquents and troublemakers."

[Watch on Rumble](https://rumble.com/embed/v7ey2de/?pub=2n05b)