Hundreds of Thousands March Across France as Schools Protests Widen Into Anger Over Policing

On Saturday afternoon in eastern Paris, brass bands played and grandparents walked with their grandchildren as at least 110,000 people, by the government's own estimate, moved along the edge of the city. They had come to back high school students who want more teachers and repairs to crumbling school buildings. Many also carried complaints about the cost of living and about how the government has policed the protests.

Across France, the government counted at least 400,000 marchers. Trade unions put the figure at roughly double that. The marches were largely peaceful, and they came as Emmanuel Macron faces a social and political crisis in his final months as president.

The student movement began in mid-September, when pupils aged 15 to 18 started protesting over staff shortages, leaking and crumbling buildings, and overcrowded classrooms without enough chairs. It has grown into the biggest youth movement in years, with unions, teachers and parents joining. Police investigations are under way after some children and protesters were maimed or injured by explosive police weaponry.

The Paris march ended at Porte de Vincennes, and the mood changed there. Groups of masked men dressed in black, who did not appear to have been part of the peaceful procession, threw glass bottles and stones at police. Police answered with teargas, water cannon and stun grenades. A bin was set alight and fireworks were fired toward officers. Riot police also charged a larger crowd of protesters with batons.

Elsewhere, police fired teargas to stop demonstrators in Lyon, Lille, Montpellier, Nantes and Toulouse from reaching city centres. In Marseille, some bin fires were lit amid clashes. At least two people were seriously injured, one in Clermont-Ferrand and one in Toulouse, who reportedly had fingers blown off. The interior ministry reported almost 1,000 arrests. Interior minister Laurent Nuñez said "high-risk groups" had broken away from the main marches seeking violence.

More than 70,000 police were deployed, shops were boarded up and many museums closed. The government feared a repeat of the previous Saturday, when peaceful protests were overshadowed by one of France's most violent days of unrest in years: public buildings burned, hundreds of shops destroyed and looted, and at least 2,700 arrests. Anger on Saturday focused on Macron's ban on non-union demonstrations his government called "illegitimate," and on keeping protesters out of city centres.

Marchers spoke of that directly. Nadège, 43, a communications worker, said she was teargassed at a peaceful demonstration last weekend and came back anyway: people are afraid now, she said, but the right to protest must be kept alive. A 21-year-old student from a Paris science faculty now blockaded by demonstrators said France increasingly feels like an authoritarian regime. Jesse, 40, a charity worker carrying a "Free Hugs" sign, said she had dressed in old clothes in case they were gassed or torn, and that it sometimes feels like a war. Pierre, 60, a retired banking consultant, said he was there for his eight-year-old granddaughter and accused the government of refusing to listen.

Some wore the yellow vests of the 2018-19 gilets jaunes protests. Jérôme Rodrigues, a key figure of that movement, said the government is afraid, which is why it pushes demonstrators to the city's edge, and that police shields are no answer to people who cannot make ends meet. He expected the protests to continue. Radical left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, also at the Paris rally, said Macron must "give in" and address the social malaise, predicting the protests will recur every week.

In Orléans, thousands marched against a congress of Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally, a frontrunner in next year's presidential election. They chanted "Macron, resign. Le Pen in prison." With Macron due to leave office next year, the question now is whether the government answers the demands on schools or keeps relying on police.