About 410,000 join anti-cost-of-living protests across France, around 1,000 detained
According to France's Interior Ministry, roughly 410,000 people took part in Saturday's cost-of-living protests nationwide. Police detained about 1,000 people across the country, while Paris remained largely calm.
Protests against the high cost of living took place across France on Saturday, drawing about 410,000 participants nationwide according to the French Interior Ministry, including 110,000 in Paris. Police detained roughly 1,000 people across the country, and the interior minister said the figure could still rise. The government assessed the demonstrations as far calmer than those on 17 October, when vandals looted shops in several cities.
Paris
The march in Paris began at 14:00 at Porte d'Italie and reached Porte de Vincennes around 17:00. At the end, about a thousand people remained there, began confronting officers and threw objects at them. Police used tear gas and a water cannon to disperse the crowd.
Police also reported more than 500 troublemakers who, according to local media, were not part of the march. They tried to break into a car dealership, but police stopped them. In the capital, 65 people were detained by the end of the marches, and more than 3,000 were checked.
Jauns.lv also recorded the detention of five young people dressed in black, aged roughly 18 to 25, near the Élysée Palace, the official residence of French President Emmanuel Macron. Two officers had initially watched them, and four more came to help when the detentions were made. The reason for the detentions, and whether the incident was linked to the protests, is not yet known.
Other cities
Clashes also affected other cities. In Lyon, police dispersed groups and tried to keep them out of the central shopping district, while in Nantes protesters attempted to get past police barriers. Shop damage and attempted looting were reported in Marseille and Grenoble.
Two people were seriously injured: in Toulouse a 20-year-old man badly injured his arm, and in Clermont-Ferrand another person suffered an arm injury. The Toulouse prefecture said the circumstances of the injury were being established.
About 70,000 police officers and gendarmes were deployed across France to maintain order. The looting on 17 October caused shops losses of several hundred million euros.
