France arrests nearly 1,000 as protests turn violent

Nearly 1,000 people were arrested in France on Saturday following a new round of nationwide demonstrations that ended in clashes in several major cities.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced the arrest figure late in the day, noting that the total would likely increase. He reported that two individuals sustained serious injuries, one in Toulouse and the other in Clermont-Ferrand. The interior ministry estimated the total turnout at 410,000, while trade unions claimed the number reached approximately 800,000.

The government deployed about 70,000 police officers and implemented restrictions in various locations to prevent a repeat of the severe disorder seen the previous weekend. That earlier event involved widespread looting and arson, with damage to over 2,000 businesses estimated in the hundreds of millions of euros by the Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Officials stated the goal was to stop the current protests, which focus on the cost of living and school conditions, from descending into similar chaos.

President Emmanuel Macron issued a decree earlier in the week limiting demonstrations to those organized by recognized trade unions. In the days since, fast-track court hearings have resulted in the jailing of hundreds of people for vandalism, arson, and looting.

Violence erupted in Paris after a march from Porte d'Italie toward Porte de Vincennes. Police utilized tear gas and water cannons, deploying an elite unit typically reserved for organized crime and counter-terrorism. Protesters constructed makeshift barricades and threw projectiles, while officers charged with batons against groups of masked youths breaking windows at a car dealership. Nuñez stated that several thousand radical activists gathered at the back of the march, including around 500 identified rioters.

In Marseille, demonstrators set fire to rubbish bins and used metal sheets to block streets, with barricades also set alight. In Bordeaux, people were observed removing boards from a shop. In Lyon, police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd that had gathered in an area declared off-limits by the local prefecture. One protester, part of a group of about 150 secondary school and university students, described the visibility in the street as poor due to the gas.

A 26-year-old Parisian protester named Zelie told the BBC that people were suffering a lot and that the situation had become too much. Two masked teenagers said their generation felt abandoned by the government. One of the teenagers acknowledged that looting was not good but attributed it to poverty and police violence, stating the protests would continue until demands were met. Separately, 13,000 people gathered peacefully in Orléans to oppose the hard-right National Rally party.

Unrest also appeared in other European capitals. Riot police in Tirana, Albania, fired tear gas at thousands of anti-government demonstrators. Clashes were reported in Brussels, while hundreds of soldiers and police in Milan prevented protesters from gathering amid fears of a repeat of the previous week's violence.

The current unrest follows a wave of student protests and demonstrations against rising fuel prices. Last weekend saw about 550,000 demonstrators, leading to more than 2,500 arrests. Approximately 1,000 police officers were injured in the previous clashes, and one demonstrator lost a hand to a crowd-control grenade. With presidential elections scheduled in six months, leading political contenders have placed blame on Macron and his cabinet.