Nearly 1,000 Arrested Across France as Largely Peaceful Protests Turn Violent Under Evening Clashes

By Saturday evening, French police had arrested nearly 1,000 people, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said, even though the day's marches over the cost of living and the state of the education system had been largely peaceful. He expected the figure to climb significantly as the night went on.

Nuñez said the marches themselves had "passed off well" in the cities, but that officers later faced "an extremely elevated level of violence" from "ultra-left" groups. Some shops and businesses were looted, he said, but on a far smaller scale than a week earlier, when some 3,000 businesses were damaged or looted. He credited faster police action, more checks before the demonstrations, and better protection for shops and shopping centers. Earlier in the day he said police had confiscated metal balls, lead pellets, fireworks, slingshots, steel balls, improvised weapons, a katana and airsoft weapons. Up to 70,000 officers were deployed nationwide, backed by helicopters, armored vehicles and water cannons.

The turnout figures differed sharply. The Interior Ministry counted about 410,000 participants nationwide, while the General Confederation of Labor put the number near 800,000. No explanation for the gap was immediately available.

In Paris, shops were boarded up and some events were canceled, though authorities described the atmosphere as calm. The march was authorized, but its starting point was moved at the last minute from the Bastille, near the center, to the more remote Porte d'Italie. Union representative Murielle Guilbert called it "scandalous" that Macron had barred protesters from demonstrating where they wished, but participants complied. The front of the march ended without incident, with some chanting "We are not happy." Police counted 110,000 marchers; unions said 250,000. As evening fell, Nuñez said, several thousand radical activists gathered at the rear of the march, including around 500 identified as rioters. Clashes with police lasted about two hours. The Paris prosecutor's office reported 64 arrests, including six minors, with 40 people held in custody, mostly over suspected weapons offenses or joining a group preparing violence or property damage. More than 3,000 people were stopped and checked.

Elsewhere, the picture varied. In Orleans, thousands marched against a congress of Marine Le Pen's National Rally, which is launching her campaign to succeed Macron. Elections are six months away, and surveys show her best placed to win. Police counted 11,000 marchers and organizers 26,000. The crowd chanted "Macron resign. Le Pen in prison," and some placards referred to a shooting in a Paris suburb that left one person dead and several injured; Macron called it a "racist terror attack," and prosecutors are treating it as terrorism. That protest ended peacefully early in the afternoon.

In Lyon, where demonstrations were banned, police used tear gas on about 150 people trying to block a road and on a group of around 1,000 in the south of the city, and street fires were reported. In Nantes, thousands broke through police lines into the city center, and officers answered with tear gas and a water cannon after fringe protesters threw projectiles and aimed fireworks at them. Marseille drew about 17,000 by police count, with tear gas fired at several dozen people and street fires. Tear gas was also used in Clermont-Ferrand, Bordeaux and Strasbourg. Nuñez said one person was seriously injured in Clermont-Ferrand and that a 20-year-old man in Toulouse reportedly had fingers blown off, giving no further details on either case.

Nuñez also noted something authorities had not seen before: in Cannes and Montpellier, far-right activists appeared, saying they were protecting businesses or seeking confrontations with "ultra-left militants." In Nice, where protests were also banned, 11 people were arrested after far-right extremists fought with demonstrators, and water cannons were used.

The unrest began in September, when high school students in southeast Paris protested for better conditions, and widened as people demanded relief from rising living costs. The Yellow Vests, who emerged about eight years ago, plan more rallies on Oct. 31, including a sit-in outside parliament and city halls, condemning the "authoritarian drift" of Macron's government. Nuñez said authorities would stay on high alert overnight.

Protests spread across Europe. Italian police reported nine arrests and 371 brief detentions in eight cities, 110 of those detained being minors, and arrested a 30-year-old suspected of being behind the "October 17 Movement." Soldiers were sent to Milan, and Premier Giorgia Meloni announced 500 more soldiers and tougher penalties for minors. Some protesters briefly broke into the Colosseum in Rome. In Tirana, riot police used water cannons on student-led crowds demanding lower tuition and an end to education corruption. In Madrid, thousands of retirees marched over pensions, and Lisbon was expected to see a housing march.