Police, protesters clash in France after 400,000 rally
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Clashes have erupted in Paris at the end of a major demonstration as more than 400,000 people protested across France over school funding and soaring living costs.
The Paris march began peacefully.
Tens of thousands of people marched through the French capital, denouncing the high cost of living and accusing President Emmanuel Macron of cutting public services while failing to tackle rising inequality.
But near its endpoint at Porte de Vincennes, some protesters threw projectiles while police fired volleys of tear gas and used water cannons to disperse people.
The interior ministry put turnout across the country at 410,000, including 110,000 in Paris.
Authorities had confined the capital’s march to the city’s southeastern edge, keeping protesters away from central neighbourhoods hit by last weekend’s destruction.
Elsewhere in France, police used tear gas in Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand, Bordeaux and Strasbourg and water cannons in Rennes, Nice and Nantes, French media reported.
In Marseille, officers fired tear gas during clashes with several dozen people near the march’s endpoint.
Youths dragged large metal sheets to block a street in Marseille, set fire to rubbish bins and hurled rocks and bottles at riot police, with the confrontations continuing as night fell.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said 64 people had been arrested in connection with Saturday’s demonstration and 40 placed in police custody.
Those arrested included six minors.
Most arrests concerned suspected weapons offences or participation in a group preparing violence or property damage, the office said.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez had announced a deployment of up to 70,000 officers, backed by helicopters, armoured vehicles and water cannons across France.
Much of central Paris took on the appearance of a city under lockdown on Saturday, with shopkeepers boarding up storefronts, museums closing their doors and more than 20 metro stations shut.
Business groups urged retailers to remain closed after thousands of shops and businesses were damaged or looted across France last weekend.
“There are hardly any customers, so it’s not really worth staying open,” said Oskar, manager of a Kiton boutique in Paris.
Several of the capital’s best-known cultural institutions including the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay and the Paris Opera closed for the day as a precaution, leaving tourists frustrated.
Trade unions led the Paris procession, followed by protesters in raincoats carrying flags and handmade placards.
What began last month as a protest over staff shortages at one high school southeast of Paris has spread across France, drawing students demanding better schools and workers seeking higher wages and pensions.
Public schools lost 15.4 million teaching hours in the 2024-25 school year because absent teachers were not replaced, according to education ministry figures – 7.5 per cent of scheduled teaching time.
Macron met secondary school representatives on Friday.
They said he had promised to overhaul university admissions but the representatives called for protests to continue until concrete measures are announced.
Organisers from the “yellow vest” protest movement called for another day of rallies on October 31 to defend the right to demonstrate.
The organisers want a “third act” on Saturday and have called for rallies and sit-ins in front of the National Assembly parliament building in Paris and in front of all town halls in France.
A protest event is also planned by the yellow vests for next Friday where participants will make noise with kitchen utensils such as pots and pans, known in French as a casserolade.
The yellow vest protest movement against high living costs gripped France between November 2018 and the early part of 2019.
The movement got its name from the yellow high-visibility vests many protesters wore.
with Reuters
AP