French Interior Ministry Reports 980 Arrests in Nationwide Cost-of-Living Protests

Nearly 1,000 people were detained in France on Saturday, October 24, as hundreds of thousands joined new nationwide demonstrations. The Interior Ministry confirmed that 980 arrests had been made by late in the day, a figure officials expect to rise. These arrests follow a week of severe disorder that saw over 2,500 people taken into custody and thousands of businesses damaged.

The Interior Ministry estimated the turnout at 410,000 participants, while trade unions claimed the number reached 800,000. To manage the crowds, authorities deployed approximately 70,000 police officers across the country. This heavy presence was intended to prevent the protests from escalating into the chaos seen the previous weekend, when officers were outnumbered and hundreds of shops were looted.

During the day, demonstrations remained largely peaceful. However, tensions flared in the evening in several major cities. In Paris, clashes began after a march from Porte d'Italie toward Porte de Vincennes. Police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds. An elite unit typically assigned to counter-terrorism was part of the Paris operation.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez stated that several thousand radical activists gathered at the rear of the march. He identified around 500 of these individuals as rioters. In Marseille, protesters set fire to barricades and used metal sheets to block streets. In Bordeaux, onlookers observed people removing boards from a shop window.

Two people were seriously injured during the demonstrations, one in Toulouse and the other in Clermont-Ferrand. In Lyon, police fired tear gas at a crowd in an area declared off-limits by the local prefecture. One student protester described the conditions, noting that visibility in the street was poor due to the smoke.

President Emmanuel Macron decreed earlier in the week that only demonstrations organized by recognized trade unions would be permitted. Since the unrest began, hundreds of individuals have been jailed for vandalism, arson, and looting following fast-track court hearings. The current protests focus on the cost of living and poor conditions in schools.

A 26-year-old protester named Zelie told BBC News that people were suffering a lot and that the situation had become too much. Two masked teenagers expressed a feeling of abandonment by the government. One of them noted that while looting was not good, they blamed poverty and police violence for the escalation. They stated the protests would continue until their demands were met.

In Orléans, about 13,000 people rallied peacefully to oppose the hard-right National Rally party. The unrest has also spread to other European cities. Riot police in Tirana, Albania, fired tear gas at anti-government demonstrators. In Brussels, clashes were reported, and in Milan, hundreds of soldiers and police prevented protesters from gathering to avoid a repeat of the previous week's violence.

The previous weekend saw approximately 550,000 people demonstrate against rising fuel prices. More than 2,000 shops and businesses were directly affected by the disorder. The Chambers of Commerce and Industry estimated the damage at hundreds of millions of euros. About 1,000 police officers were injured, and one demonstrator lost a hand to a crowd-control grenade.