Nearly 1,000 arrests were made as hundreds of thousands of people took part in another day of protests across France which were followed by some clashes late on Saturday, officials have said.
After a day of largely peaceful demonstrations, police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters in a number of cities including Paris, while barricades were set alight in Marseille and people ripped boards from a shop in Bordeaux.
But officials have so far managed to avoid rioting and looting on the scale seen last weekend, which resulted in some of the worst scenes of disorder in France’s modern history.
The interior ministry said an estimated 410,000 people protested on Saturday, while the unions put the number at about 800,000.
Some 70,000 police officers were deployed and restrictions imposed in several cities to prevent the latest protests over the cost of living and poor school conditions from descending into the kind of chaos which saw officers outnumbered, hundreds of businesses looted and buildings torched.
President Emmanuel Macron had decreed earlier this week that only demonstrations organised by a recognised trade unions would be permitted. Hundreds of people have been jailed for vandalism, arson and looting after fast-track court hearings in recent days.
Clashes between protesters and riot police in Paris erupted at the end of a peaceful march from the city’s Porte d’Italie towards Porte de Vincennes on Saturday, where the police operation included an elite unit that usually deals with organised crime and counter-terrorism.
Some protesters were seen erecting makeshift barricades and pelting officers with projectiles, while police baton-charged groups of masked youths who were smashing the windows of a car dealership.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said that “several thousand radical activists gathered at the rear of the march, including around 500 individuals identified as rioters”, the AFP news agency reported.
In the southern port of Marseille, rubbish bins were set ablaze and metal sheets used to block streets. A law enforcement vehicle was seen driving through a burning barricade in France’s second-largest city.
Meanwhile, some protesters in dark clothing and face coverings were seen taking boards off a building to build a street barricade in the southern city of Bordeaux.
In Lyon, police used tear gas grenades to disperse a crowd which had reportedly gathered in an area deemed off-limits by the local prefecture.
“There were around 150 of us, mostly secondary school and university students. Then the tear gas came almost immediately. You could barely see anything in the street,” said one protester in France’s third-largest city.
Nuñez said late in the day that nearly 1,000 people had been arrested, a number he said would increase.
The minister also said two people had been “seriously injured”: one in the south-western city of Toulouse, and another one in Clermont-Ferrand, central France.
Earlier, a peaceful protester in Paris who gave her name as Zelie told the BBC people had taken to the streets because they were “really frustrated” and had been “suffering a lot” since Macron came to office.
“They keep us quiet. They take our money, they tax us a lot and we can’t say anything. Today we are in the streets because it’s been too long, it’s been too much,” the 26-year-old said.
Two masked teenage protesters, who did not want to give their names, also said their generation was in despair and felt abandoned by the government.
“I think looting is really not good,” one of the demonstrators said of last Saturday’s disorder. “But it’s because of poverty and the violence of the police.”
He added that the protests would end “when we have a response to our demands. We really want a change in France”.
Meanwhile, some 13,000 people joined a rally against the hard-right National Rally party in the north-central city of Orléans which proceeded peacefully.
Mass protests triggered by similar issues as in France also rocked several other European cities on Saturday.
In Albania’s capital Tirana, riot police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of anti-government demonstrators, while clashes were also reported in Belgium’s capital Brussels.
In Milan, northern Italy, a major security operation including hundreds of soldiers alongside police prevented protesters gathering in the city. Many had feared a repeat of violent scenes last week when some started fires, smashed windows and looted shops.
Around 550,000 people took part in last weekend’s demonstrations against rising fuel prices and the cost of living, with frustrations escalating after weeks of student protests. The chaos which followed resulted in more than 2,500 arrests.
Marches were initially largely peaceful but became marred by scenes of violence, looting and destruction, with more than 2,000 shops and other businesses across France said to have been directly impacted. The damage was estimated “at hundreds of millions euros”, France’s Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCI) said.
One demonstrator’s hand was blown off by a police crowd-control grenade, according to the AFP news agency, while about 1,000 police officers were injured.
The French authorities later said they were forced to impose overnight curfews in Paris and other cities.
The continuing protests come ahead of France’s presidential elections in six months’ time, and leading contenders have levelled the blame at Macron and his ministers.
By BBC News
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