French Interior Ministry Reports 980 Detentions After Nighttime Protest Clashes

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced late on Saturday that French police had detained nearly 1,000 individuals following a new round of nationwide demonstrations. The minister stated that the number of arrests was expected to increase as police processed detainees across various regions. The protests, which had been largely peaceful during the day, turned violent in the evening in several major cities.

The interior ministry estimated that 410,000 people participated in the demonstrations, a figure significantly lower than the unions’ claim of approximately 800,000 attendees. Authorities deployed roughly 70,000 police officers to manage the crowds and enforce restrictions in specific areas. This heavy security presence was designed to prevent a recurrence of the disorder seen in the previous week, which involved extensive looting and fires.

The unrest began in Paris as a march moved from Porte d'Italie toward Porte de Vincennes. Police units, including an elite squad typically assigned to counter-terrorism and organized crime, engaged with crowds that built makeshift barricades. Officers charged with batons at groups of masked youths who were breaking the windows of a car dealership. Nuñez told AFP that several thousand radical activists were positioned at the rear of the march, including about 500 individuals identified as rioters.

Similar scenes unfolded in other major French cities. In Marseille, protesters set fire to barricades and used metal sheets to block streets. In Bordeaux, witnesses observed people tearing boards off a shop. In Lyon, police used tear gas to disperse a crowd gathered in an area declared off-limits by the local prefecture. One protester in Lyon, a student, described the density of the smoke by stating that visibility in the street was very poor.

Nuñez reported that two people were seriously injured during the clashes, with one victim located in Toulouse and the other in Clermont-Ferrand. The minister noted that the overall situation remained under control compared to the previous weekend, when officers were outnumbered and hundreds of businesses were damaged. The current protest cycle focuses on the cost of living and poor conditions in schools, issues that have fueled student activism for weeks.

President Emmanuel Macron issued a decree earlier in the week specifying that only demonstrations organized by recognized trade unions would be permitted. In response to the recent violence, fast-track court hearings have resulted in the jailing of hundreds of people for vandalism, arson, and looting. The government aims to use these legal measures and strict policing to contain the unrest before it spreads further.

Demonstrators expressed frustration with the current economic conditions. A 26-year-old Parisian protester named Zelie told the BBC that people were suffering a lot and that the situation had become overwhelming. Two masked teenagers said their generation felt abandoned by the government. One of the teenagers acknowledged that looting was not ideal but blamed poverty and police violence for the behavior. The group said the protests would continue until their demands were met.

The unrest extended beyond France’s borders on Saturday. In Tirana, Albania, riot police fired tear gas at thousands of anti-government demonstrators. Clashes were also reported in Brussels, Belgium. In Milan, Italy, hundreds of soldiers and police prevented protesters from gathering due to fears of a repeat of the violence from the previous week. In Orléans, France, 13,000 people rallied peacefully against the hard-right National Rally party.

The previous weekend saw approximately 550,000 people demonstrate against rising fuel prices and the cost of living. That event resulted in more than 2,500 arrests and significant commercial damage. The Chambers of Commerce and Industry estimated the damage to shops and businesses at hundreds of millions of euros. About 1,000 police officers were injured, and one demonstrator lost a hand to a crowd-control grenade. With presidential elections six months away, leading political contenders have begun blaming Macron and his ministers for the instability.