About 410,000 people took part in protests against the high cost of living across France on Saturday, including 110,000 in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry. The CGT union put the figures at nearly 800,000 nationwide and 250,000 in the capital, and condemned the protest bans imposed in several cities.
Saturday’s turnout was lower than a week earlier, when Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said about 550,000 people marched on October 17, including 110,000 in Paris. Organizers had claimed 800,000 on that day as well.
The protests, billed by participants as “Act II,” brought together trade unions, high school and university students, and the yellow vests movement. They came one week after a day of mobilization that descended into rioting and looting in several cities. Nuñez reported more than 1,800 arrests nationwide after last Saturday’s unrest and said more than 500 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters were injured. Limoges city hall, inaugurated in 1883, was set on fire, and dozens of shops were looted in Marseille, Bordeaux and Paris.
In response, the government deployed about 70,000 police and gendarmes on Saturday, along with the elite GIGN, BRI and RAID units. Soldiers from Operation Sentinelle guarded some public buildings. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu warned on the eve of the protests that the threat level remained high, pointing to the far left and to criminal elements.
More than a hundred cities imposed curfews or bans on demonstrations. Rallies were banned in Lyon, Nice and Montpellier, although about 10,000 people demonstrated in Lyon regardless, according to France 24. In the Bouches-du-Rhône department, protests were barred in all towns of more than 10,000 residents with a handful of exceptions, and curfews remained in place in Marseille, Aubagne, Cabriès and Les Pennes-Mirabeau after a court upheld the prefect’s measures. In Toulouse, local authorities said 26,000 people marched.
In Paris, the authorized march was moved at the last minute. The police prefecture had originally approved a route between Place de la Bastille and Place de la Nation in the east of the city, then imposed a new route on the outskirts between Porte d’Italie and Porte de Vincennes, citing security concerns. Unions and left-wing politicians protested the change, and an administrative court rejected a challenge to the new route. “Changing the rules on the eve of a mobilization, after obtaining the agreement of the unions, creates the conditions for disorder rather than calm,” the union coalition said in a statement.
The Paris march was largely calm, police said, but officers used water cannon and tear gas toward the end of the procession. Tensions were also reported in Bordeaux.
Separately, up to 30,000 people demonstrated in Orléans against the far-right National Rally, which is holding its party congress in the city. Jordan Bardella is set to be reelected party president on Saturday, ahead of Marine Le Pen’s presidential campaign rally on Sunday. CGT leader Sophie Binet and Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure joined the Orléans march.
Protest leaders show no sign of letting up. The yellow vests have called a new day of action for October 31, and unions announced a national mobilization for November 5 after what they described as a disappointing meeting with the government.
