Nearly 1,000 held after Saturday marches
French authorities said nearly 1,000 people were taken into custody on Saturday after widespread demonstrations over high prices and troubled schools, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced late in the day, warning the figure would climb. About 70,000 officers were deployed, and local limits on gatherings applied in several cities, as officials sought to keep the day from matching the disorder of the previous weekend.
President Emmanuel Macron had ruled earlier in the week that only rallies run by recognised trade unions could go ahead. In recent days, fast-track courts have sent hundreds to jail over vandalism, arson and theft linked to earlier unrest.
Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux
In the capital, a largely calm procession from Porte d’Italie toward Porte de Vincennes ended in fighting with riot units. An elite force usually tasked with organised crime and counter-terrorism took part. Some demonstrators built improvised barriers and threw objects; officers baton-charged masked groups breaking glass at a car showroom on the Cours de Vincennes.
Nuñez said several thousand hardline activists trailed the rear of that march, among them roughly 500 people already known to police as rioters. In Marseille, youths burned bins and sealed streets with metal panels; a police vehicle was filmed crossing a flaming barrier. In Bordeaux, people in dark clothes and face coverings pulled boards from a facade to make a street block. In Lyon, tear-gas grenades cleared a crowd that had gathered where the prefecture had banned assembly. One student there said about 150 secondary and university pupils were present before gas filled the street almost at once.
Two people were seriously hurt: one in Toulouse in the south-west and another in Clermont-Ferrand in central France.
Voices from the streets and last weekend’s toll
A peaceful Paris marcher who gave her name as Zelie, 26, said people felt long-term strain since Macron took office, citing heavy taxes and a sense of being silenced. Two masked teenagers, unnamed, spoke of despair among their peers and said street action would continue until demands were answered; one rejected looting but tied last Saturday’s disorder to poverty and police force.
Separately, roughly 13,000 people held a calm rally in Orléans against the hard-right National Rally party.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- Previous weekend: About 550,000 joined demos against fuel costs and living expenses after weeks of student unrest; more than 2,500 were arrested; over 2,000 shops and firms were hit, with chambers of commerce putting losses in the hundreds of millions of euros; about 1,000 officers were hurt; overnight curfews followed in Paris and other cities; one protester lost a hand to a crowd-control grenade, according to officials cited in contemporaneous accounts.
- Earlier this week: Macron limited permitted marches to those organised by recognised unions.
- Saturday: Fresh nationwide demos; nearly 1,000 detentions reported by evening; clashes in Paris and unrest in Marseille, Bordeaux and Lyon; two serious injuries in Toulouse and Clermont-Ferrand.
The unrest arrives about six months before France’s presidential election, with leading rivals blaming Macron and his cabinet. Similar price-driven street pressure has also appeared elsewhere in Europe, including tear gas against anti-government crowds in Tirana, clashes in Brussels, and a heavy police-and-soldier cordon in Milan after violent scenes there the week before.
Aasan alfaaz mein
France mein mehngai aur school problems ke khilaf badi ralliyan hui hain. Police ne kaha ke lagbhag ek hazar log pakre gaye. Pichhle weekend se kam nuksan hua, lekin Paris aur doosre shehron mein takrao aur tear gas dekhi gayi. Jo log wahan rehte ya travel karte hain, unhein security aur city rules ka khayal rakhna chahiye.
