Protests in France over rising living costs descended into clashes in Paris on Saturday, as demonstrators joined a nationwide movement backed by students and one of the country’s major trade unions.
Police used tear gas at Place de la République after small groups wearing hoods and masks threw fireworks and other objects at officers. Riot police were deployed across the square and nearby streets.
The demonstrations were organised through social media under calls to revive the “yellow vest” movement, which emerged in 2018 in response to social injustice. Student groups that have blockaded schools since mid-September also urged supporters to take part.
The CGT union called for “higher wages and pensions, lower prices and the protection of public services that meet people’s needs”.
By midday, the office of Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said authorities had recorded 140 protest actions outside the Paris region, involving more than 30,000 people. At least 166 arrests had been reported across the country.
Nuñez’s office said masked protesters had been involved in violence in Paris, Marseille, Rennes, Toulouse and Angers. It said there had been attempted looting, attacks on police officers, fires involving street furniture and damage directed at government institutions and media outlets.
In Marseille, shops and a municipal police station were damaged, while protesters briefly entered the lobby of City Hall. The city’s mayor, Benoît Payan, said on television that the damage to the lobby was limited and that police had dispersed the group.
President Emmanuel Macron appealed for calm on Friday, saying: “There is a constitutional right to protest and to express oneself. But this right comes with the need to respect. Respect for people, respect for property, and therefore a commitment not to insult or destroy.”
Authorities banned some other proposed gatherings in central Paris and, at the police’s request, several Metro stations were closed, including stops near the Champs-Elysées, the presidential palace, parliament and government offices.
The latest demonstrations follow weeks of student unrest, during which there have been thousands of arrests, hundreds of injuries and fires at schools. Some teenagers have suffered serious wounds that protesters have blamed on police riot-control weapons.
Mr Nuñez suspended the use of one type of police stun grenade against young demonstrators after a 15-year-old lost a hand. Climate and social justice activist Greta Thunberg joined students at a high school in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on Tuesday.
