French Protests: 980 Arrested as Evening Clashes Follow Mass March

Police forces in France detained 980 individuals on Saturday, a figure Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed late in the day. The arrests occurred after a largely peaceful daytime march gave way to violent clashes in several major cities during the evening. Nuñez stated that the number of detainees would likely increase as reports were finalized.

The Interior Ministry estimated that 410,000 people participated in the nationwide demonstrations, while trade unions claimed the turnout reached approximately 800,000. Authorities deployed around 70,000 police officers to manage the crowds. This heavy deployment aimed to prevent a repeat of the disorder seen the previous weekend, which resulted in widespread looting and arson.

In Paris, tensions escalated near the end of a march from Porte d'Italie to Porte de Vincennes. Police utilized an elite unit typically reserved for counter-terrorism operations to manage the crowd. Protesters constructed makeshift barricades and threw projectiles at officers. Police responded with batons, targeting groups of masked youths who were breaking windows at a car dealership.

Violence spread to other cities, including Marseille, where residents set fire to barricades and blocked streets with metal sheets. In Bordeaux, onlookers observed people removing boards from a shop. Lyon saw police fire tear gas into a crowd that had gathered in a restricted area declared off-limits by the local prefecture. One protester in Lyon, a student, described the visibility as poor due to the gas.

President Emmanuel Macron had previously decreed that only demonstrations organized by recognized trade unions would be permitted. This rule followed fast-track court hearings that jailed hundreds of individuals for vandalism and arson. Nuñez noted that several thousand radical activists, including roughly 500 identified rioters, positioned themselves at the rear of the Paris march.

Two people sustained serious injuries during the clashes, one in Toulouse and the other in Clermont-Ferrand. Demonstrators expressed frustration over the cost of living and school conditions. A 26-year-old Parisian named Zelie told the BBC that people were suffering significantly and that the situation had become too much. Two masked teenagers blamed poverty and police violence for the unrest, stating the protests would continue until demands were met.

Unrest also appeared in neighboring countries. Riot police in Tirana, Albania, fired tear gas at anti-government demonstrators. In Brussels, clashes were reported, while hundreds of soldiers and police in Milan prevented protesters from gathering. The previous week saw approximately 550,000 demonstrators and more than 2,500 arrests, with business damage estimated in the hundreds of millions of euros.