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The French Interior Ministry estimated 410000 people participated in Saturday’s demonstrations across the country to denounce growing inequality and underinvestment in schools while unions placed the figure at more than double that total. In the capital a march from Porte d’Italie toward Porte de Vincennes remained orderly until nightfall when around 500 hooded individuals at the rear began pelting officers with objects and fireworks according to Reuters. Police responded with tear gas and water cannons as the confrontations continued for roughly two hours on a cold and rainy evening before the groups dispersed.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez stated that the violence proved less intense than the unrest recorded seven days earlier when looting and vandalism had escalated rapidly. Authorities had mobilised 70000 officers and gendarmes nationwide an increase of 10000 from the previous weekend to deter repeats of the October 17 disturbances that caught security forces off guard. The ministry also reported that several thousand radical activists including around 500 identified rioters had gathered at the back of the main Paris demonstration.
Similar unrest developed in Marseille where young people set rubbish bins ablaze to block roads and hurled rocks and bottles at security forces according to reports from multiple outlets. In Bordeaux protesters ripped boards from a shop front while clashes involving tear gas erupted in Lyon and other cities including Lille Toulouse Montpellier and Nantes. The Paris prosecutor’s office said 64 people were arrested in the capital alone with most facing charges linked to weapons offences or preparation of violence and six of those arrested being minors.
The protests highlighted ongoing public frustration over soaring costs for gasoline energy and food as well as staff shortages and deteriorating conditions in high schools that have persisted for months. One 27-year-old engineering graduate named Camille Chesnier told reporters she had been unable to find work despite holding a master’s degree illustrating the economic pressures driving many participants. Previous weekend demonstrations had caused damage estimated at hundreds of millions of euros to businesses according to France’s Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
This second consecutive weekend of action occurred as the government under President Emmanuel Macron maintained a high-visibility security posture that included helicopters armoured vehicles and restricted march routes to keep demonstrators away from central Paris landmarks. Officials noted that while the bulk of Saturday’s events stayed peaceful the evening flare-ups in several cities still required repeated charges by riot police. Nuñez described the overall policing effort as proportionate even as separate reports emerged of injuries including one man in Toulouse who lost fingers in an incident involving a crowd-control grenade.
Ground footage from the Porte de Vincennes area captured running battles with projectiles flying toward police lines and tear gas canisters dispersing crowds as the situation deteriorated after dark. The Interior Ministry placed the nationwide arrest total near 1000 for the day with many detentions occurring during the dispersal phase of the rallies. Comparable protests also took place in Belgium Italy and Albania on the same date though those events remained smaller in scale.
