Police and protesters clashed violently in Paris and other French cities Saturday as half a million people marched against soaring inflation, with one demonstrator’s hand blown off, multiple blazes set and dozens of shops stripped bare by looters.
The widespread unrest follows weeks of student protests and deepens political uncertainty in France as it readies for elections in six months’ time to replace President Emmanuel Macron.
Macron said on X late Saturday: “Those who carried out vandalism, attacked administrative offices or businesses, or carried out looting — even in our town halls, will be prosecuted and punished.”
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu slammed the “violence of extreme intensity” during the day.
Around 550,000 people turned out for the demonstrations, with some 400 arrests made, the interior ministry said, while the CGT union said 800,000 people turned out.
Police used tear gas and water cannon against masked protesters in Paris and other cities who threw projectiles and aimed fireworks. Several parked cars were torched in the capital, with smoke rising over the centre.
In the southern city of Saint-Etienne, a male protester had his hand blown off by a police crowd-control grenade, a police source told AFP. His maiming came after a 15-year-old lost his hand October 5 to a police stun grenade during another protest in the city of Lens.
In Lyon, protesters set ablaze a tourist office in the city centre, and smashed their way into town halls in the cities of Marseille and Lille, and a police compound in Bordeaux, vandalising the premises before leaving.
In the city of Limoges, flames reached the roof of the town hall after a group attacked the building after protests.
Dozens of shops were looted in Paris, Marseille, Nice, Bordeaux and Lille, where an Apple store was stripped, AFP journalists saw.
A crowd of more than 300 protesters tried to move up Paris’s Champs-Elysees, home to flagship luxury stores. As police fired tear gas to block their way, they yelled “All cops are bastards”.
Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said “entire streets have been devastated” in the capital.
‘Macron, resign’
Masked youths carried out looting and confrontations on the sidelines of marches that were largely peaceful and attracted people of all ages, including families with children.
In Paris, tens of thousands marched across the east and north of the city in one major march, some shouting “Everyone hates the police” and “Macron, resign”.
One demonstrator, Jules Petrichor, 47, who had brought his son, said: “There was a good atmosphere and then suddenly they (the police) started gassing us, even though nothing was happening. Naturally that worsened things and the hot-heads got hot-headed.”
Demonstrators’ hostility towards the police sharpened over the course of the preceding student protests, when several teens were maimed and thousands were arrested.
France’s Yellow Vest movement, which eight years ago staged street protests against Macron’s government over planned fuel tax hikes, had called for the Saturday’s “yellow and youth” demonstrations.
The principal grievance was the cost of living, pushed up in part by the war in the Middle East that has helped send inflation soaring in Europe as elsewhere.
But there were other issues too.
High school student Kamil Alahyan, 18, said he was protesting “for so many reasons — the elections coming up in 2027, politicians who lie, the ultra-rich who’ve been taking more and more wealth over the past 10 years”.
Le Pen blames ‘rioters’
Opposition politicians vying to succeed Macron have seized upon the protests.
Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who has sided with the police, said on X: “Looting, pillaging, attacking police — rioters have once again sullied the October 17 demonstrations.”
Her far-left rival Jean-Luc Melenchon, who had supported the student protests and Saturday’s demonstrations, urged demonstrators to stay away from any looting, describing it as “contrary to our methods”.
Several protesters sought to draw parallels with the French Revolution of 1789.
“It’s the Revolution — we’re taking the Bastille!” some shouted in Marseille during the forced entry of the mayor’s offices.
In the western city of La Rochelle, marchers streamed behind a placard reading: “Revolution or death.”
And in the southern city of Montpellier, a giant blue sign reading “The people will win” was unfurled above a central square.
“The government is trembling and it’s right to tremble because when the French people are angry, they never let up,” Ryad Rani, the head of the LSU high school student representative body, told journalists in Paris.
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