Police fired tear gas and clashed with demonstrators in Paris and other French cities on Saturday, as large crowds marched nationwide over the rising cost of living and alleged police violence. Some participants dressed as clowns and witches for Halloween.
It was the third straight day of national demonstrations. The rallies were mostly calm, but tensions flared in several cities later in the day. Authorities said about 320,000 people took part across France, including 70,000 in Paris. Youth organisations put the total at nearly half a million, with 200,000 in the capital.
Violence breaks out at the end of the Paris march
The march on the outskirts of Paris was held in bright sunshine, but fighting broke out between police and some protesters as the procession reached its endpoint. Dozens of masked people dressed in black used hammers to pry up paving stones and throw them at officers. At least one incendiary device was also hurled at security forces.
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Officers responded with tear gas and several baton charges. The police prefecture said a “hard core of several hundred rioters” at the back of the march attacked officers with projectiles, including a Molotov cocktail. Police, it added, were trying “to restore public order.”
Protests spread to Lyon and Toulouse
In Lyon, France’s third-largest city, people threw objects at police, who answered with tear gas, according to a journalist at the scene. In the southern city of Toulouse, police used water cannon against an unauthorised protest that drew several thousand people, most of them young.
Earlier in the day, thousands walked through eastern Paris while a helicopter circled overhead. Some wore costumes ranging from Spider-Man to Frankenstein. Placards carried slogans mocking the tension, including one reading “No need for tear gas to make our future look bleak.”
In the western city of Nantes, demonstrator Camille Guerin, 31, said: “We say no to the cost of living, no to the far right, yes to high school students’ demands, yes to giving citizens a voice.” In the northern city of Lille, 47-year-old Aurelie Herrmann danced at the protest. She said television only showed damage and destruction, when peaceful protest could also be cheerful.
Political climate and student plans ahead of elections
The movement brings together Yellow Vest activists, trade unions, and high school and university students. It first centred on the rising cost of living, inequality and worsening conditions in schools and universities. After a security crackdown and serious injuries to some protesters, its demands widened to include stronger protection of civil liberties and the right to protest.
The protests come amid a tense political climate. Presidential elections are less than six months away, and far-right leader Marine Le Pen is at the top of opinion polls. Hard-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who accused Macron’s government of “taking an increasingly authoritarian turn”, joined the march in Paris.
Student protesters complained that police had not authorised a march through central Paris. Sabrine Kharbach, spokeswoman for the Union Etudiante (Student Union), said the group would blockade universities and high schools starting Tuesday, again on Thursday, and then join a demonstration on November 5 called by workers and trade unions.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez’s aide said on Friday that police had prepared for street violence on a scale “comparable” to unrest two weeks earlier, when shops were looted and public buildings set ablaze. Nunez also said authorities had detected social media calls for Halloween gatherings that urged protesters to spark a “revolution.” Ahead of the protests, some shopkeepers boarded up their premises, and a cafe employee in eastern Paris said few people would be shopping.
The government faces limited room to placate demonstrators with extra spending. The eurozone’s second-largest economy is on the brink of recession and under pressure to reduce its debt.
