PROTESTERS clashed with police in Paris and other French cities on Saturday as over 800,000 people took to the streets, including students and trade unionists in the CGT Force Ouvrier and CFDT trade union federations and the Yellow Vest movement to protest higher living costs and the declining conditions in schools and other public services.
Calls on social media for members of past protest movements to join the current one have been made for weeks.
The website 17octobregiletjaune.net, which tracks ‘Yellow Vest’ actions, listed more than 1,750 planned protest locations across the country.
Several town halls were broken into – and in at least one instance set on fire – and many shops were vandalised and ransacked.
One protester had his hand torn off by what appeared to be a crowd-control grenade used by police.
The nationwide demonstrations follow weeks of student protests and deepens political uncertainty in France as it readies for elections in six months’ time to replace President Emmanuel Macron.
During protests at the Place de la République in Paris, riot police clashed with demonstrators, using tear gas and stun grenades to disperse groups of protesters wearing hoods and masks who threw fireworks and other objects at officers.
Dozens of people were reportedly detained in the capital.
Police used tear gas and water cannon against masked protesters in Paris and other cities who were throwing projectiles and aiming fireworks.
Several parked cars were torched in the capital, and more than 130 arrests made.
In the southern city of Saint-Etienne, a male protester had his hand blown off by a police crowd-control grenade.
His maiming came after a 15-year-old lost his hand on 5th October to a police stun grenade during another protest in the city of Lens.
In Lyon, protesters set ablaze a tourist office in the city centre, and smashed their way into town halls in the cities of Marseille and Lille, where they vandalised the premises before leaving.
Dozens of shops were looted, including many in Marseille, among them a Hermes boutique, an Apple store in Lille, several shops in Nice
In Paris, over a hundred thousand people marched across the east and north of the city in one major march with some shouting: ‘Everyone hates the police’ and ‘Macron, resign’.
One demonstrator, Jules Petrichor, who had brought his son, said: ‘There was a good atmosphere and then suddenly they (the police) started gassing us, even though nothing was happening.
‘Naturally, that worsened things and the hot-heads got hot-headed.’
Another protester who gave his age as 19 and his first name as Louis, complained that police were trigger-happy any time there was a demonstration.
‘We can’t protest any more – it’s frightening,’ he said.
France’s Yellow Vest movement, which eight years ago staged street protests against Macron’s government over planned fuel tax hikes, had called for the Saturday’s ‘yellow and youth’ demonstrations.
The principal grievance was the cost of living – pushed up in part by the war in the Middle East – that has helped send inflation soaring in Europe, as elsewhere.
Eighteen-year-old high school student Kamil Alahyan, said he was protesting ‘for so many reasons – the elections coming up in 2027, politicians who lie, the ultra-rich who’ve been taking more and more wealth over the past 10 years’.
Agnes, a 50-year-old actor who did not give her second name, said: ‘For years we’ve had climate, economy and equality problems but the government is not doing anything about it.’
Anae, a 24-year-old student who did not give her surname, said she was protesting because she did not have a ‘sustainable future’.
She said: ‘Our planet’s burning. And we’ve got a government that doesn’t give a toss.’
The government has accused the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party of inflaming the protests.
The party has rejected the accusation.
Its leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, insisted early on Saturday that ‘everything is passing off peacefully’, while accusing television news of ‘flooding us with images of violence in dozens of cities’.
Several protesters sought to draw parallels with the French Revolution of 1789.
‘It’s the Revolution – we’re taking the Bastille!’ some shouted in Marseille during the forced entry of the mayor’s offices.
In the western city of La Rochelle, marchers streamed behind a placard reading: ‘Revolution or death.’
Ryad Rani, the head of the LSU high school student representative body, told journalists at a gathering in Paris: ‘The government is trembling and it’s right to tremble because when the French people are angry, they never let up.’
The CGT trade union federation said: ‘There was an increased turnout from striking teaching staff – once again present in large numbers within the marches to support the struggle of high school and university students, to strengthen it, and to protect it from police repression.
‘The CGT is focused on increasing wages and pensions, lowering prices, and defending public services that truly meet people’s needs.
‘Wherever the conditions allow, CGT activists will be present alongside those taking part in the mobilisation – high school and university students, employees, and retirees.
‘Our presence also aims to prevent the far right from attempting to hijack this day of social struggle,’ the CGT emphasised.
Speaking about the general strike which is set to take place (November 5th) Jerome Rodrigues, a prominent Yellow Vest activist, said: ‘High school students are fighting for their future.
‘Workers are fighting to earn a living from their labour.
‘Retirees are fighting to preserve their dignity. Our paths may differ, but our concerns can converge and this is what is happening today.’
More than 6,700 children under the age of 18 have been taken into police custody since mid-September.
In September, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said that French fifteen year olds’ results in mathematics and reading had fallen to among their lowest levels on record.
The government recorded a deficit of 152.5 billion euros (£128.7 billion) last year, equivalent to 5.1 per cent of France’s gross domestic product (GDP).
By contrast, the European Union average is 3.1 per cent.
Macron’s decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 triggered months of mass demonstrations in 2023, exposing deep opposition to reforms that many saw as unfairly burdening workers.
Now, as the government prepares its next budget, it faces the challenge of persuading the public that spending cuts and other savings are necessary without further eroding confidence in public institutions.
However, as the protests and strikes have shown students and workers are not accepting the cuts.
