Nearly 1,000 Arrested as Clashes Follow Mass Protests Across France

Hundreds of thousands of people marched across France on Saturday in protests over school conditions and the cost of living, with largely peaceful daytime demonstrations giving way to clashes after dark in several cities. French authorities had deployed more than 70,000 police officers and gendarmes nationwide, along with armored vehicles and water cannons, in an effort to prevent a repeat of the widespread looting and arson that accompanied protests the previous weekend.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said nearly 1,000 people were arrested by early evening, many for carrying materials that could be used as weapons. He described an “extremely elevated level of violence” from groups that broke away from authorized marches, including black-clad ultra-left activists. Police used tear gas and water cannons in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, and other cities. Two people were reported seriously injured, including one man in Toulouse whose fingers were reportedly blown off by a crowd-control device.

The Interior Ministry estimated that 410,000 people participated in protests nationwide. Unions put the figure closer to 800,000. In Paris, police counted at least 110,000 marchers along a restricted eastern route. Authorities had banned many non-union demonstrations, imposed curfews in parts of several cities, closed museums including the Louvre, and shut some metro stations. Many shops remained boarded up.

The protests began weeks earlier with high school students demanding more substitute teachers and improved facilities. They expanded into broader demonstrations against rising living costs. The prior weekend had drawn more than 500,000 marchers, according to the Associated Press, with violence on the margins that left approximately 3,000 stores looted, public buildings damaged or burned, and more than 2,700 people taken into custody. Officials estimated damage from those events in the hundreds of millions of euros, and more than 200 people had been jailed.

Nuñez said Saturday’s violence was less intense and the damage smaller in scale than the previous weekend, though he noted that high-risk groups formed in nearly every march. Paris police said remaining rioters were being cleared with helicopter support by late evening. No comprehensive final damage assessment for Saturday had been released as of early Sunday. President Emmanuel Macron had met with student representatives earlier in the week and postponed a planned trip to Africa as the unrest continued six months before presidential elections.