Violence erupted across France on Saturday, tainting massive protests by students, trade unionists, and Yellow Vest activists and resulting hundreds of arrests and widespread damage in several major cities.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said about 550,000 people participated in 110 marches nationwide, including roughly 110,000 in Paris.
Organizers, including the labor union CGT (General Confederation of Labour) and student groups, put the turnout higher, at about 800,000.
Many of the demonstrations, which started off peacefully, devolved into riots. Clashes, fires, and looting broke out in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Limoges and other cities.
In Paris, police deployed tear gas after rioters threw fireworks, paving stones, and other objects at officers. Cars and trash bins were set on fire, while shops were looted in the areas around République and the Boulevard de Sébastopol.
Violence was also reported outside the capital. Some protesters briefly forced their way into Marseille City Hall, while a tourist office in Lyon caught fire. In Limoges, City Hall was set ablaze and suffered extensive damage.
Authorities also reported attacks or attempted break-ins at government buildings and police stations in cities including Bordeaux, Lille, Calais, and Brest.
Nuñez said approximately 400 arrests across France, noting that most of those detained were adults.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu sought to distinguish between peaceful demonstrators and those responsible for the violence.
Much of the violence, he said, were committed by far-left groups, along with opportunistic looters who joined the unrest.
“Far-left groups have orchestrated violence in several French cities; criminals have joined in to loot and destroy,” Lecornu wrote in a post on X addressing groups he accused of trying to exploit the unrest ahead of France’s 2027 presidential election.
“We will not let ourselves be intimidated. No one will impose their political agenda through violence.”
Lecornu also expressed his support for the police officers and gendarmes deployed on the ground, whom he said had “faced violence of extreme intensity.”
President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the attacks while defending the right to demonstrate peacefully.
“There is no place for violence in our Republic,” Macron wrote on X. “Those who vandalized property, attacked government offices and businesses, and even looted our town halls will be prosecuted and punished.”
Macron added that the country would stand united against those who “sow chaos” and interfere with peaceful protesters.
Saturday’s unrest comes as Macron enters the final months of his presidency and France prepares for a presidential election in April 2027, with economic pressures and dissatisfaction over public services increasingly shaping the political debate.
The 17 October demonstrations brought together several strands of discontent that had been building for weeks.
High school and university students have been protesting since mid-September over teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms, deteriorating facilities, and other problems in the education system.
Violence in those protests was also blamed on far-left elements, with the far-left France Unbowed (LFI) party being accused by the government of coopting the movement for their leftist political cause.
In the days before 17 October, trade unions, workers, and activists associated with France’s Yellow Vest movement also joined calls for nationwide demonstrations.
The Yellow Vest movement first emerged in 2018 over fuel taxes and the cost of living, before expanding into a wider protest against economic inequality and the policies of President Emmanuel Macron’s government.
This year, renewed anger over higher gasoline, food, and energy prices has helped revive some of those grievances.
The CGT backed Saturday’s demonstrations with demands for higher wages and pensions, lower prices, and stronger public services.
(NTD)
