About 1,000 people have been arrested in France after hundreds of thousands of citizens took to the streets Saturday to protest the high cost of living and poor conditions in schools. The demonstrations, mostly peaceful during the day, were accompanied by clashes in several cities in the country.
Police used tear gas and water balls to disperse protesters in several areas, including Paris. In Marseilles, protesters set the barricades on fire, while a store was damaged in Bordo.
According to France’s Interior Ministry, about 410 thousand people participated in Saturday’s protests, while trade unions estimated that the number of participants reached about 800 thousand, reports BBC.
Some 70 thousand police officers were engaged in ensuring security, while restrictions were imposed in some cities to prevent the escalation of the situation.
Authorities have so far managed to avoid riots and looting in the size of last weekend, when France faced severe scenes of public disorder.
In Paris, clashes between protesters and riot police erupted at the end of a march that started in the Porte déltalia area and ended in the direction of Porte de Vincennes.
During the intervention, some protesters set up improvised barricades and threw objects at the police. Meanwhile, police used rubber sticks to disperse groups of masked youths who were breaking the glass of an autosallon.
France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said several thousand radical activists had gathered in the back of the march, including about 500 people identified as participants in the riots.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron had warned early in the week that only demonstrations organised by prominent unions would be allowed. In recent days, hundreds of people have been sentenced to prison for vandalism, arson, and robbery following accelerated court hearings.
Source Layer: Signal
