More than 410,000 protest, 1000 arrested in France: What reporters have seen

Hundreds of protests were held in France Saturday as nationwide anger grows over the cost of living, with security forces out in force to prevent a repeat of violence that marred last weekend’s demonstrations.

Clashes broke out in Paris at the end of the protest march on the eastern edge of the capital, with AFP reporters seeing police use batons and tear gas to push back demonstrators. Officials said a water cannon was also used.

“The police started moving towards everyone, telling them to get down and back off. They were just taking people down, you know, beating protesters,” one demonstrator bleeding from a baton blow, who gave his first name as David, told AFP.

410,000 demonstrated in France

The interior ministry said late Saturday it estimated a total 410,000 people turned out in nationwide demonstrations over the cost of living, with 110,000 in Paris.

One of the unions organising the rallies, the CGT, said it estimated 800,000 people participated across the country, with 250,000 in Paris.

Some demonstrators chanted “We are not happy” as they peeled away.

Clashes were reported in Paris, Lyon, Lille, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes and Toulouse.

Paris police said that more than 3,000 people were stopped and checked by officers and 65 people were arrested during the demonstration in the French capital.

Nearly 1,000 arrested in French protests marred by ‘elevated’ violence: minister

French police arrested “nearly 1,000” people Saturday in nationwide protests in which officers were confronted with “an extremely elevated level of violence” from black-clad extremists, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said.

Although marches over the cost of living “passed off well” in cities, “ultra-left” groups took to throwing projectiles and aiming fireworks at police to provoke clashes, he told journalists.

Two people were “seriously injured”, he said: one in the city of Toulouse, where a 20-year-old man reportedly had fingers blown off, and the other in Clermont-Ferrand. He did not give details of either case.

Protesters face the police's water cannon near Porte de Vincennes. Photo / AFP

Nunez compared Saturday’s figures with those from a week ago, when a first round of national demonstrations over the cost of living degenerated into street violence, with hundreds of shops looted and 2,700 people ending up being arrested.

He said that the nearly 1,000 arrests recorded on Saturday compared with the same time a week ago, when authorities had recorded 385 arrests.

French Gendarmes detain a protester during a demonstration in favour of purchasing power, the protection of public services, and fiscal and social justice, in Paris. Photo / AFP

He also said that, while some shops and businesses had been vandalised and looted on Saturday, “the scale was far smaller” than a week earlier, and he stressed that shopping centres had been well protected this time.

In Paris, where the main demonstration passed off largely peacefully but clashes broke out with police as the crowd dispersed, Nunez said “several thousand radical activists gathered at the rear of the march, including around 500 individuals identified as rioters”.

Ensuing clashes in the capital lasted for around two hours, he said.

The minister said that in the southern cities of Cannes and Montpellier, authorities “for the first time” saw far-right activists who sought confrontations with “ultra-left militants” or who claimed to be there to protect businesses.

Overall, Nunez said, Saturday’s outcome appeared more “positive” than a week ago, with more police on the streets acting more rapidly, conducting more pre-demonstration checks and better protecting businesses.

The authorities would remain “on high alert” through the night and into Sunday, he said.

Seen and heard at France protests

AFP has deployed reporters, photographers and video journalists in cities across France to document nationwide cost-of-living protests on Saturday.

Here is a round-up of what they are witnessing as security forces seek to prevent a repeat of violence and looting that erupted on the sidelines of similar demonstrations last weekend.

‘Beating up a lot of people’

Police used tear gas and baton-charged protesters at the end of the march at Porte de Vincennes on the eastern fringes of Paris.

“The police started moving towards everyone, telling them to get down and back off. They were just taking people down, you know, beating protesters,” said a student, David, who was shaking and bleeding from a gash on his face.

“They were moving really fast and beating up a lot of people. The one of the police officers threw a baton at my face. There was blood everywhere.”

Police officers detain a protester near Porte de Vincennes. Photo / AFP

Residents peering out their apartment windows in one classic, Haussman-style building hurriedly slammed them shut and retreated after police fired tear gas near the front door.

‘It makes me sick’

In northern Lille, where the main march began in a calmer atmosphere than last week, protesters chanted “ACAB” - an English-language acronym condemning police.

After an hour, the first tear gas canisters plunged part of the march into an opaque, stinging haze. A few projectiles were thrown at police. “We got gassed even though we weren’t doing anything,” said Eline, 23, her eyes full of tears. She said she was demonstrating for the first time.

Appoline, 25, admitted she was “terrified” to join the demonstration, having been shocked by images of police action circulating in recent days. She carried a sign that read: “For all those among us who have been maimed”, a reference to people hurt in recent protests.

“I hesitated to come,” said the psychology student. But “when I see young people losing eyes or hands, it makes me sick,” she whispered, as the Lille procession set off in the rain, accompanied by the beat of techno music.

‘Warzone’

Jeremy Costeweiss, a 21-year-old medical student, told AFP he was attending the march in Paris as he feared “things are going to erupt” and he wanted to help people who may get tear-gassed or hurt in confrontations.

First responder Alexandre B, speaking to AFP in Paris, described last week’s protests as a “warzone”. He said he had handled seven emergency interventions, including two cases of head trauma and two open fractures.

Saturday’s march was “nothing like” the week before, he added.

Umbrellas and hoods went up as the rain began to intensify over Paris.

‘Don’t do anything stupid’

Several thousand protesters began marching in pouring rain in Bordeaux.

Among them was an older CGT union activist who locked eyes with two masked youths in black tracksuits, and told them: “We’re not here to mess around - don’t do anything stupid.”

At the front of the march, police were nowhere to be seen. “No cops, no problems,” laughed another CGT union member.

Anger

Lucie, a 42-year-old designer living in Begles, told AFP at a march in Bordeaux that the violence of last weekend was “unfortunate” but “a form of anger that one can understand”.

“The truth is, if you’ve never known what it’s like to go hungry, to struggle to make ends meet at the end of the month, or to have no idea what your future holds, you can’t truly grasp the kind of anger that can breed,” she said.

More tear gas

French police fired tear gas in Lyon, Lille, Marseille, Nantes and Toulouse as the protests went on.

Protesters could be seen running as tear gas canisters were launched in Nantes. Police also used a water cannon as they blocked access to a bridge crossing the Loire river, while some demonstrators hurled small projectiles in their direction.

One protester could be seen kicking back a tear gas canister during a demonstration in Toulouse, while another tried to do the same in Lyon.

‘Disappointed’

The only authorised march in Paris began at Porte d’Italie with thousands of people walking in a festive, calm atmosphere beneath cool, overcast skies.

Protesters, standing in a bar, face riot mobile gendarmes near Porte de Vincennes. Photo / AFP

Some carried placards with slogans such as “Macron in the corner” - referring to the French president - and “We expected nothing, yet we’re still disappointed”.

“We’re all here because we want to protest peacefully but people also need to understand that the anger is real. We’ve been walked all over for 10 years,” one protester in a Doctor Who hat who gave their name only as Aurore told AFP.

Ynyane, 19, was dressed as Dragon Ball anime hero Son Goku, a costume he chose “to give people hope”.

“Taxes are a bit too high and I have to support people who are struggling,” he added.

‘I’m also afraid’

High school students who gathered in Toulouse on Saturday spoke of their fears attending a demonstration, after weeks which have seen teenagers wounded and maimed in clashes between police and protesters.

Given the clashes last week and “the repression we faced - which was horrific - I think some people might not be keen on coming today”, 17-year-old Ella, a student at the Lycee Marcelin Berthelot in Toulouse, told AFP.

“I’m also afraid of what might happen to me at a protest these days. But the truth is, we can’t give up. Even with this fear, we’re not giving up.”

‘Distressing’

At Porte de Vincennes, where the Paris march finished, some businesses had been barricaded, although many had their shutters down.

“It’s distressing. I don’t know where we’re heading,” said Dominique, an employee at a car rental company who preferred not to give her full name. “My grievance is with the rioters -- those who come specifically to smash things and to steal.”

Police are ‘faster’

A 21-year-old student protester in Lyon, where demonstrators were tear-gassed on Saturday, said police were “highly mobile”.

“We keep moving around but since the police have vehicles, they’re faster. They manage to break up the groups before they can even really form,” he said.

“We end up exchanging information like criminals. We’re in small groups - sometimes just pairs - trying to share updates and find other people, but it’s extremely difficult.”

Not ‘just one grievance’

“I don’t think the French people have just one grievance,” said Aliyah, 22, sitting with her mother Ludovine at a cafe terrace near the Old Port in Marseille as they waited for demonstrations. She said people’s primary concern was rising costs.

“The people are growing poorer, the people are unhappy, so they take to the streets to protest,” she said, adding that bans on the demonstrations in some cities “only makes us more determined to show up”.

‘Curiosity’

Shops and restaurants were open mid-morning in Grenoble - although a curfew was in place in parts of the city and several shopping centres from 6pm.

Francois-Xavier Chambron, who works at a bar on the city’s Grenette Square, said they planned to stay open at least for lunch, noting that they already had reservations and that people would be around “out of sheer curiosity”.

Demonstrators gathered for an authorised protest in the afternoon where one participant carryied a sign reading: “And so freedom is extinguished under the rain of tear gas”.

‘Hotter than fascists’

Thousands of people yelling anti-fascist slogans marched in the city of Orleans against a congress by the far-right National Rally (RN) party of Marine Le Pen.

The protest criticised both leading presidential candidate Le Pen and centrist President Emmanuel Macron.

“Macron resign. Le Pen in prison,” the crowd yelled, carrying placards that read “The Youth say ‘screw you’ to the National Rally” and “Hotter than fascists”.

- AFP