FRANCE: Hundreds of thousands of people protested across France on Saturday, according to the country’s Interior Ministry. Most of the protests were peaceful.
About 110,000 of the more than 410,000 protesters were in Paris, the ministry said. This was about the same number as last weekend. Some protesters are calling for more money for schools, better job opportunities for young people, and ways to deal with rising living costs.
Nearly 1,000 people were arrested during protests across France on Saturday, according to French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez.
That was more than the 385 arrests made during last week’s protests, he said.“In Paris, a large protest took place peacefully, as did most marches across the country,” Nuñez told reporters.
Nuñez said police had controlled where protesters could go. “They stopped people from holding marches that had not been approved or from going toward city centers.”
“In some cities, there was some damage and stealing from shops, but only in a few places,” Nuñez added. This was much less than during protests a week earlier. Nuñez said there were no planned attacks on public buildings, such as town halls and police stations, unlike last weekend.
However, he said security forces faced “a very high level of violence,” with objects and fireworks being thrown at them. He said police would stay on duty until late Saturday night to prevent stealing from shops.
The Interior Ministry said about 70,000 police officers had been sent across the country on Saturday for the second round of protests. Special police teams, helicopters, armored vehicles, police dogs and water cannons were ready for the operation. More than half a million people had taken to the streets the previous Saturday.
After a peaceful march through Paris, several thousand protesters faced off with police. Police used tear gas and a water cannon to stop them. The clashes began at Porte de Vincennes, where the march ended. About 110,000 people had joined the march.
In Marseille, France’s second-largest city, protesters fired fireworks toward police during street clashes. There were also reports of stealing from shops in different parts of the city, a jewelry store’s windows were broken and a supermarket was looted.
Images from Bordeaux, on France’s Atlantic coast, showed police using tear gas against protesters in the famous Place de la Bourse. Videos showed some masked protesters throwing objects at police as tear gas spread across the square. In Nice, dozens of far-right activists attacked people who were protesting peacefully on Saturday.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the far-left party La France Insoumise, said a nationwide strike would happen on November 5 if French President Emmanuel Macron did not respond to protesters’ demands.
“A general strike, called by the CGT, is possible on November 5,” he told BFMTV while speaking from the front of Saturday’s march in Paris. As many protesters gathered in cities across France on Saturday, protests against the government were also happening in several other European countries.
In the Italian cities of Naples, Rome and Milan, shops covered their windows before planned protests. Shops had been looted during earlier demonstrations.
In Tirana, Albania’s capital, protesters set fire to trash bins and threw stones and tear gas canisters. In Brussels, students held signs and blocked streets. Police used a water cannon, according to Belgium’s public broadcaster VRT.
Reported By: Foreign Reporter I France
