More than 1,300 people were arrested across France on Saturday as a second weekend of mass protests over the cost of living ended in clashes, though a deployment of 70,000 police prevented a repeat of the previous weekend's widespread looting. France's interior ministry said on Sunday that 1,314 people were arrested and 53 officers were hurt, as hundreds of thousands marched in Paris and other major cities.
Peaceful marches, violent margins
An estimated 410,000 people turned out nationwide, including 110,000 in Paris, according to the interior ministry. Organisers put the national figure far higher, at around 800,000. The Paris march, rerouted late on Friday from Place de la Bastille to Porte d'Italie, proceeded largely peacefully in the afternoon before confrontations broke out at its tail end near Porte de Vincennes, where protesters built barricades, hurled projectiles and smashed the windows of a car dealership.
Clashes were also reported in Lyon, Lille, Montpellier, Marseille, Nantes and Toulouse. Police used tear gas and water cannon, responded to 75 fires, and reported 24 shops looted. In Paris, 142 people were arrested. Two protesters were seriously injured, one in Toulouse and one in Clermont-Ferrand. The Louvre, the Paris opera house and other museums closed for the day, and many shops boarded up.
Two sides of the same Saturday
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez accused "ultra-left" groups of using an "extremely elevated level of violence", while accepting that the nationwide marches had "passed off well" earlier in the afternoon. He said several thousand radical activists had gathered at the back of the Paris procession, including around 500 people identified as rioters, and that several investigations had been opened.
Protesters and unions say the demonstrations reflect genuine anger over the rising cost of living and deteriorating school conditions, and many criticised the heavy security presence and pre-march searches, during which police confiscated items including metal balls, fireworks, slingshots and a katana sword. Critics of the crackdown described it as an assault on the right to protest. The unrest comes as France heads toward presidential elections in April and May to choose a successor to President Emmanuel Macron, who is reaching his two-term limit.
What happens next
Authorities said Saturday night was calm after the clashes died down. The ministry did not say how many protesters were hurt. With a second weekend of unrest now logged, the key questions are whether the protest movement sustains its momentum, how the government answers demands on living costs and schools, and whether further weekends of demonstrations follow.
Watch: NDTV World footage of riot police charging crowds as tear gas fills Paris streets on October 24.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Volatile Reaction (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: The Times, Firstpost, China Daily, Modern Ghana, Channel NewsAsia, Arab News.