Less than 48 hours after protests and riots swept French cities, President Emmanuel Macron left for the Persian Gulf, which critics saw as an escape. More than half a million people marched on Saturday, and nighttime looting and arson raised concerns that France was losing control of its public finances and streets. Macron said the trip aimed to help bring fuel prices down, and his office said it had secured an extra 200,000 tons of diesel a month from the UAE and Bahrain. Police detained around 2,500 people, and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said curfews were restoring calm. The unrest is tied to cost-of-living anger, debt and spending cuts ahead of next year’s presidential election, where Marine Le Pen leads the polls.
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• NeutralRelevance: low
| Market | Currencies |
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| Close on 10/20/2026 | 1.12376 |
| Change that session | +0.22% |
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