Hundreds of thousands of people across France took to the streets on Saturday in a fresh wave of protests over the cost of living and poor school conditions, and by the end of the day nearly 1,000 of them had been arrested, according to officials. For ordinary citizens, the stakes are immediate: safety on the streets, the right to protest, and a government struggling to answer anger over household budgets and schools. The demonstrations were largely peaceful for most of the day, but clashes broke out in several cities late on Saturday, raising fresh questions about public safety and the government’s ability to manage growing public frustration.
The interior ministry estimated that 410,000 people protested nationwide, while the unions put the figure at about 800,000. Some 70,000 police officers were deployed and restrictions were imposed in several cities, an operation designed to prevent the protests from descending into the kind of chaos seen the previous weekend, when officers were outnumbered, hundreds of businesses were looted and buildings were set on fire in some of the worst scenes of disorder in France’s modern history. Officials have so far managed to avoid a repeat of that scale of rioting and looting.
For the people marching, the grievances are everyday ones. Zelie, a 26-year-old peaceful protester in Paris who spoke to the BBC, said people had taken to the streets because they were “really frustrated” and had been “suffering a lot” since President Emmanuel Macron came to office. “They keep us quiet. They take our money, they tax us a lot and we can’t say anything. Today we are in the streets because it’s been too long, it’s been too much,” she said.
Two masked teenage protesters, who did not give their names, said their generation was in despair and felt abandoned by the government. One of them condemned the previous weekend’s disorder, saying “I think looting is really not good,” but added that it happened “because of poverty and the violence of the police.” He said the protests would end “when we have a response to our demands. We really want a change in France.”
The trouble on Saturday followed a peaceful march in Paris from Porte d’Italie towards Porte de Vincennes. Clashes between protesters and riot police erupted at the end of the march, in an operation that included an elite police unit that usually deals with organised crime and counter-terrorism. Some protesters erected makeshift barricades and threw projectiles at officers, while police baton-charged groups of masked youths who were smashing the windows of a car dealership.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told the AFP news agency that “several thousand radical activists gathered at the rear of the march, including around 500 individuals identified as rioters.” Late in the day he said nearly 1,000 people had been arrested, a number he expected to increase. He also said two people had been “seriously injured,” one in the south-western city of Toulouse and another in Clermont-Ferrand in central France.
Meanwhile, the disruption spread well beyond the capital. In Marseille, France’s second-largest city, rubbish bins were set ablaze and metal sheets used to block streets, where a law enforcement vehicle was seen driving through a burning barricade. In Bordeaux, protesters in dark clothing and face coverings were seen taking boards off a building to build a street barricade. In Lyon, police used tear gas grenades to disperse a crowd that had reportedly gathered in an area deemed off-limits by the local prefecture. “There were around 150 of us, mostly secondary school and university students. Then the tear gas came almost immediately. You could barely see anything in the street,” one protester in France’s third-largest city said.
The government has moved to tighten control of the streets, a step with direct consequences for citizens’ right to demonstrate. Earlier in the week, President Macron decreed that only demonstrations organised by a recognised trade union would be permitted. Hundreds of people have already been jailed for vandalism, arson and looting after fast-track court hearings in recent days.
Not every gathering ended in confrontation. In Orléans, some 13,000 people joined a rally against the hard-right National Rally party which proceeded peacefully.
By contrast with the previous weekend, the toll on the public was lighter this Saturday. Around 550,000 people had taken part in demonstrations a week earlier against rising fuel prices and the cost of living, with frustrations escalating after weeks of student protests. More than 2,500 arrests followed that chaos. The marches were initially largely peaceful but became marred by violence, looting and destruction, and more than 2,000 shops and other businesses across France are said to have been directly impacted. France’s Chambers of Commerce and Industry estimated the damage “at hundreds of millions euros.” According to AFP, one demonstrator’s hand was blown off by a police crowd-control grenade, and about 1,000 police officers were injured. The authorities later imposed overnight curfews in Paris and other cities.
The unrest in France also echoed across Europe on Saturday, where cities saw protests triggered by similar issues. In Barcelona, more than 100 people were arrested after a student protest descended into what local authorities described as “gratuitous violence.” In Albania’s capital Tirana, riot police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of anti-government demonstrators, and clashes were also reported in Belgium’s capital Brussels. In Milan, a major security operation involving hundreds of soldiers alongside police prevented protesters from gathering in the city; many had feared a repeat of last week’s violent scenes, when some protesters started fires, smashed windows and looted shops.
With France’s presidential elections six months away, the continuing protests have become a political test as much as a public-order one, and leading contenders have levelled the blame at Macron and his ministers. Whether the government can answer the demands on the street, and keep citizens safe while doing so, is the question now hanging over the country.