France Protests Turn Violent as Clashes Erupt in Paris, Marseille and Lyon

On Saturday, October 24, 2026, police in France began the day by seizing weapons. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said officers had arrested 135 people and confiscated metal balls, lead pellets, fireworks, slingshots, steel balls, improvised weapons, a katana and airsoft guns, all before the main marches got going. He posted that morning that French forces were mobilized and ready, and said there had been no major incident so far.

The caution had a cause. The previous Saturday, protests over the rising cost of living and growing inequality had spiraled as looters and rioters joined in. Buildings were defaced and burned. Authorities put the number of looted shops at some 1,500, though a DW reporter in Paris cited at least 3,000 shops ransacked or destroyed. Nunez, who reported 2,700 arrests from that weekend, admitted on Monday to a loss of control. In response, the government raised the police deployment by 10,000, to more than 70,000 police and elite security forces.

The turnout was large, and the numbers depend on who is counting. The interior ministry said 410,000 people marched nationwide, down from about 550,000 the week before. The CGT trade union said 800,000 took part, including 250,000 in Paris. Paris police counted 110,000 in the capital. The Yellow Vest movement, the largely rural group at the center of fuel-price protests from 2018 to 2020, joined forces with aggrieved school students. Parisian authorities confined the march to the city's southeastern edge, running from Place d'Italie on the left bank to Porte de Vincennes on the right. The unions agreed to the route. Some Yellow Vest members refused to comply with the order to move it away from the center.

In the late afternoon, as demonstrations wound down, clashes started. In Paris, riot police fired tear gas and water cannons at some 500 hooded youths until they dispersed. In Marseille, youths set trash cans on fire to block roads and threw rocks and bottles at security forces, and police used tear gas. Tear gas was also used in Lyon, Lille, Toulouse and Nantes, and clashes were reported in Bordeaux, Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand and Rennes as well. In Orleans, protesters demonstrated against a two-day congress of Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally, which polls show leading France's presidential race next year.

By night's end, Nunez reported nearly 1,000 arrests, a figure he expected to climb as tallies were completed. He said multiple lootings had been averted. The scale of unrest was far below the previous weekend's. DW's Lisa Louis, in Paris, said what she saw could even be considered a relatively calm end to a demonstration, noting that scuffles with police are part of French protest tradition.

Shopkeepers had approached the day with dread. Jonathan Siad, who owns a tobacco shop in Paris, said some merchants were planning to buy weapons in case looters returned, and predicted a tragedy someday. Others were too afraid to speak on camera, fearing criminals might target their shops. Yassaman Metghalchi, co-owner of a Paris jewelry store looted the week before, described a neighborhood that had resembled a war zone and was now empty except for police vans. Her neighbors felt reassured, she said, though she added that the night was not yet over.

The unrest reached beyond France. In Milan, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ordered 500 soldiers sent to the city to join about 5,000 police and other personnel, after looters ransacked businesses near the Duomo the week before. About 3,000 people rallied there, and a smaller demonstration took place in Rome, where luxury shopping streets were locked down. Protests were also planned in Albania, Spain and Portugal over education and housing.

The next date is already set. The Yellow Vests called for new rallies on October 31, including a sit-in outside parliament and outside city halls nationwide, to protest what they call President Emmanuel Macron's authoritarian drift. A coordinator said at Bastille square that they would protest for the freedom to protest.