French authorities, considering the high number of participants in the nationwide protests on Saturday, arrested 1314 people. According to preliminary statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, 53 police and security personnel were also injured in these clashes. Firefighters responded to 75 fires, and 24 stores were looted.
Clashes and Number of Participants
Protests were held in various cities in France, including Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Tours, during which police used tear gas to disperse protesters. The French Ministry of the Interior attributed the clashes to various groups, including radical left activists, along the protest routes. Estimates suggest that 410,000 people participated in 289 gatherings and protests across the country, a decrease from 550,000 the previous week. Some estimates indicated that the number of participants could be as high as 800,000.
Difference from Last Week's Protests
The number of arrests and violence on Saturday was significantly lower than on October 17, when authorities reported 2628 arrests and 1144 security personnel injured. Laurent Nunez, the French Minister of the Interior, announced after the protests on Saturday that the number of arrests was close to 1000 and added that this number would likely increase. He also noted that several looting incidents in recent days had been effectively prevented.
While some clashes between protesters and police were reported in many cities, the intensity of these disturbances was much lower compared to last week when buildings were damaged and about 1500 stores were looted across the country. Nunez had previously reported the number of people arrested last week as 2700.
In Paris, at least 110,000 people took to the streets to protest the rising cost of living and inequality. Police forces in major cities across France were on alert. While gatherings in Paris and Marseille were mostly peaceful, reports of clashes between protesters and police were received in the late hours of the day.
Riot police in Paris fired tear gas and water cannons at around 500 youths wearing helmets to disperse them. In Marseille, youths blocked streets by setting fire to trash cans and threw stones and bottles at security forces. Clashes were also reported in the cities of Lyon, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand, and Rennes.
France is known as a country with a culture of protest, and holding demonstrations is considered a fundamental value in this country. Clashes between police and protesters are seen as part of the protest ritual in France. Some witnesses of these protests described the current situation as calmer compared to previous weeks.
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