Violence in France: El Salvador’s president says what could be achieved “in one week”

After violence broke out in several French cities on October 17, 2026, Nayib Bukele said on X that France could overcome its difficulties in one week. He claimed El Salvador had addressed a problem “a hundred times more serious” in one year, without specifying what he meant, amid his record of a hard-line campaign against gangs. France’s interior minister blamed the unrest on several thousand far-left individuals; media reports cited at least 1,800 arrests and around 1,500 damaged businesses.