Nearly a thousand people were arrested during the latest wave of widespread protests in France. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets on Saturday, October 24, to protest the rising cost of living and the poor state of schools and public services, and at the end of mostly peaceful gatherings, clashes occurred between protesters and police in Paris and several other cities.
Statistics on Participants and Clashes
The French Ministry of the Interior reported that the number of participants in these protests was 410,000, while labor unions believe that around 800,000 people demonstrated across the country. In Paris, after the end of the march from the Porte d'Italie to the Porte de Vincennes, groups of protesters clashed with police forces.
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Some protesters confronted the police by creating temporary barriers in the streets and throwing objects at officers. Security forces also used tear gas, water cannons, and batons to disperse the crowd. In Marseille, France's second-largest city, trash bins were set on fire, and protesters used metal sheets to block some streets.
Protests and Social Discontent
In Bordeaux, groups of protesters created barriers in the streets by removing protective boards from buildings. In Lyon, police used tear gas to disperse a gathering that was held in a prohibited area. Laurent Nunez, the French Minister of the Interior, announced on Saturday evening that nearly a thousand people had been arrested during these protests, and this number is expected to rise.
He also reported that two people were seriously injured in the cities of Toulouse and Clermont-Ferrand. French authorities had deployed about 70,000 police forces across the country to prevent a recurrence of the violence from the previous week and had imposed restrictions on gatherings in several cities.
Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, had previously announced that only gatherings organized by labor unions would be recognized as permitted. However, the recent protests, which initially began with students' dissatisfaction over the lack of teachers and educational facilities, have gradually spread to other groups in society.
Zeli, a 26-year-old participant in the Paris gathering, explained that people have been enduring significant economic pressure since Macron came to power, and they have now taken to the streets to express their discontent. The CGT labor union has also called for another nationwide strike and demonstration on November 5.
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