Iona is based in New York City. Since joining The Telegraph in 2024, she has covered major international stories, including the Russia-Ukraine war, conflicts in the Middle East and US politics 5:50pm BST Marine Le Pen said France’s democracy was at risk after violence erupted during anti-government protests.

The hard-Right National Rally (RN) leader released a pre-recorded address on Sunday, accusing both the Left and Emmanuel Macron of fuelling the unrest.

In a video posted on social media, Ms Le Pen said: “We are living through a profound crisis of trust and authority that poses a threat to democracy.

“This observation must alert us: our country is caught in a vice, or even taken hostage, between violence and powerlessness.”She added: “We have a Macronist power that is out of breath, exhausted, disoriented, which now seems incapable of doing anything other than commenting on its own impotence, its own downfall, I would even say.

“We have a government that deplores events without managing to prevent, control or even manage them. A minority and disqualified power, whose sole concern is less to govern France than to cling to the last remnants of its waning power.”

Fires continued to burn in Paris on Sunday Ms Le Pen said people at home would have watched the violence unfold on Saturday “with dismay”.

“France cannot, must not, and will never get used to such scenes. Today, I call on all French people for calm, dignity, and republican restraint,” she said.

Mr Macron is due to address the nation at 7pm UK time after meeting senior government officials.

Earlier, Jordan Bardella, Ms Le Pen’s running mate, said: “France has been humiliated.”

“There is no longer any order in France,” he told reporters on Sunday, and called on Mr Macron to step down. “Let him leave and ask for forgiveness.”Emmanuel Macron hosted a crisis meeting with ministers on Sunday Fresh clashes broke out in Paris on Sunday after France had suffered one of its worst days of unrest in years on Saturday, when nationwide demonstrations against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools turned into riots.

Police arrested more than 2,000 people across France after violent groups looted and set fire to public buildings on Saturday. One protester died after suffering a cardiac arrest during demonstrations in Paris.

It laid bare growing anger at Mr Macron, who will leave office in 2027 after a decade presiding over the country as its economy weakened and debt ballooned.

The French government has blamed the violence on hard-Left and ultra-Left groups, as well as criminals who it said instigated the looting.

Political leaders across the spectrum have sought to trade blame for Saturday’s riots as they look ahead to next spring’s presidential election.

Masked demonstrators on the streets of the capital on Sunday Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the Left-wing hopeful, accused Sébastien Lecornu, the prime minister, of “playing with fire,” alleging that “by banking on degradation, you have only succeeded in uniting all youths and workers’ unions”.

He insisted that “my message is clear: those who share our fight have no business in looting or destruction”.

Donald Trump also weighed in on the violence, using it as a means to justify harsher border control policies in the EU.

“France is burning!” he posted on his Truth Social platform, and suggested the unrest was linked to “the immigration of people from an entirely different world”. “Close your borders and take control, before it is too late!” he wrote.

French authorities and police did not link immigrants to the rioting. They repeatedly attributed some of the violence to “radical far-Left groups” and others.

About 550,000 people took part in protests across France, according to the authorities, while organisers put the figure at roughly 800,000.

Demonstrators answered calls from a labour union, student organisations and activists hoping to revive the “yellow vest” movement, which emerged in 2018 to protest against social injustice. ‘The damage is unprecedented’The mayors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon, the three largest cities, requested a meeting with the prime minister in the coming days “given the extent of the damage and the seriousness of the situation”.

Masked groups set fires and attacked public buildings, including city halls, in several cities on Saturday, authorities said. In the central city of Limoges, flames engulfed the 19th-century city hall, causing its roof to collapse and nearly destroying the building.

Hundreds of protesters gathered again Sunday at the Place de la République in Paris amid a heavy police presence. Officers used tear gas as tensions flared sporadically.

“The scale of the damage is considerable and unprecedented,” Emmanuel Grégoire, the mayor of Paris, wrote in an open letter.

“Paris is a city of freedoms, debate and demonstrations. It must remain so. But it must also be a city where everyone can work and run a business safely.”