France went up in flames Saturday.
Masked mobs hijacked a nationwide day of protest, torching a 143-year-old town hall, storming government buildings and fighting police in the streets. In the middle of the chaos, protesters waved Palestinian flags.
In the heart of Paris, demonstrators climbed the monument at Place de la République, the towering statue of Marianne that symbolizes the French Republic. A Reuters photographer captured them perched on it holding a French tricolor alongside a Palestinian flag amid pink smoke. One outlet reported that rioters pulled down the statue’s French flag and hoisted a Palestinian banner in its place.
The flags turned up well beyond Paris.
In Marseille, several dozen mostly young protesters battered through the doors of City Hall and briefly overran the lobby, according to Agence France-Presse. They overturned tables and chairs, smashed a screen, and knocked a bust of Marianne to the floor. Some of the intruders wore yellow vests. Others carried Palestinian flags. Someone spray-painted an anarchist symbol on the wall.
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