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Two French Protesters Arrested for the Burning of the Limoges Town Hall
Mayor Guerin attributes the incidents to activists from the Millevaches Plateau, which is home to anti-capitalist communities.
On Saturday, Prosecutor Emilie Abrantes confirmed that two men had been remanded in custody over their alleged involvement in the fire at Limoges City Hall during unrest accompanying protests against the rising cost of living in France.
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The suspects, ages 34 and 66, are under investigation in a judicial proceeding opened on several charges, including attempted murder of a police officer and destruction of the municipal building. Abrantes, however, did not specify the exact charges attributed to each man.
The first suspect, a 34-year-old man from the Creuse department, was arrested on Tuesday in Bussière-Boffy, in the Haute-Vienne department, with support from RAID, France’s elite police unit.
The construction industry temporary worker and environmental advocate is listed in police records for his alleged links to far-left organizations. He was convicted of an incident involving violence against an officer during an earlier demonstration in Creuse. The second suspect, 66, was arrested on Thursday in Gentioux-Pigerolles, a town in the same department.
On Oct. 17, an arson attack severely damaged Limoges City Hall, a historic building inaugurated in 1883. Videos show individuals breaking windows and forcing open the entrance to the municipal building before entering and setting fire to its interior.
🇫🇷 Multiple cities across France including #Lyon, Grenoble, Nice, Montpellier, Limoges, Tours, Rennes, Brest, Rouen, Lille and Nancy banned all public gatherings this weekend.
— Mahalaxmi Ramanathan (@MahalaxmiRaman) October 24, 2026
In some cities like #Marseille, trade unions received authorisation from the local prefecture to… pic.twitter.com/n5YnMHLQlI
Limoges Mayor Guillaume Guerin described the 34-year-old suspect as the likely mastermind behind the operation and accused far-left factions of being behind the act.
He specifically accused activists based on the Millevaches Plateau, a rural area of about 10,000 inhabitants located between the departments of Corrèze, Creuse and Haute-Vienne.
The area has been known for decades for attracting environmentalist, anarchist, and anti-capitalist communities. The region has been the scene of other acts of sabotage claimed in the past, including the burning of vehicles belonging to electricity company Enedis in Limoges in 2020 and the destruction of a telecommunications antenna in Haute-Vienne in 2021.
In April, the courts convicted the father of the younger of the two men jailed over the Limoges City Hall fire for those acts. The man, about 70, is known for his ties to anarchist circles and his past as a Basque independence activist in the 1980s.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
