Protests

Macron was speaking after meeting with intelligence officials and senior ministers earlier in the day to discuss the crisis.

France is the keystone of Europe's political and economic order. If Paris cannot keep the peace, Europe's confidence in its own institutions will crack with it.

US President Donald Trump has blamed immigrants and radical Islam, without providing evidence, and said the turbulence was a warning for Americans.

Police have deemed the demonstration illegal and are on the scene directing traffic to alternative routes, clearing the road, and restoring public order.

The protest, which began last week with the blocking of roads, motorways, and ports in Sicily and southern Italy, is causing wider disruption, including supermarket shortages and gas station lines.

The scale of the destruction has also prompted wider questions about how social grievances developed into a national security crisis, whether extremist networks are exploiting the unrest.

Alongside convenience stores and small businesses, branches of fashion and lifestyle giants, including Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Dior, and Ralph Lauren, have been looted.

Parties once considered fringe were already gaining ground, with voters ranging from motorists in rural France to young men in Germany's former Communist east seeking alternatives.

Some 2,400 people were arrested during the weekend, and police investigators are poring over online videos and images to track down looters.

In a new addition to his stump speech, Trump pointed to widespread protests in France as a scenario that could erupt in the United States unless Republicans win.