Symbolic imageFrench marches stay largely calm by day, then clashes bring nearly 1,000 arrests
Hundreds of thousands protested across France on Saturday over living costs, schools and policing. Interior minister Laurent Nuñez reported almost 1,000 arrests after evening clashes.
A week after the riots of 17 October, about 70,000 police and gendarmes were deployed, and the authorised marches passed largely peacefully. Later, Nuñez said, officers faced "an extremely heightened level of violence" from far-left militants, with clashes in Paris, Lyon, Nantes and Toulouse. He said looting was far less than a week earlier and that there were no targeted attacks on public buildings. The interior ministry counted 410,000 marchers, 110,000 of them in Paris; the CGT union federation claimed nearly 800,000, including 250,000 in Paris.
Injuries and conflicting accounts
Nuñez said two people were seriously injured in Clermont-Ferrand and Toulouse. In Toulouse a 20-year-old lost several fingers in an explosion, a helper told AFP, and a protester told AFP that police "started going at everyone". The Paris police prefecture said more than 500 rioters attacked officers after the march.
Far right appears, more protests planned
Nuñez said authorities saw far-right activists seeking confrontation with the left for the first time, in Cannes and Montpellier. The Yellow Vests announced a "third act" for 31 October, with sit-ins at the National Assembly and town halls.