Clashes erupt across cities as fires, water cannons and tear gas fill the streets

Macron vows to punish vandalism and looting; far-left leader Mélenchon joins rally

Echoes of 2018 Yellow Vest movement raise fears of renewed unrest ahead of election

Protesters demonstrate against soaring living costs and cuts to public services at Place de la Madeleine in Paris on Saturday (local time). [EPA]
Protesters demonstrate against soaring living costs and cuts to public services at Place de la Madeleine in Paris on Saturday (local time). [EPA]

Mass protests over soaring prices and the cost of living swept across France on Saturday (local time), leaving 1,200 people arrested. The demonstrations, which coincided with high school student rallies demanding better educational conditions, descended into violence — with luxury stores looted and bloody clashes breaking out between protesters and police.

Workers furious over skyrocketing living costs and fuel prices poured into the streets alongside citizens sympathetic to the Yellow Vest movement — the sweeping anti-government protests that began in 2018 over a fuel tax hike and economic inequality and shook France for months.

Students who had been occupying streets instead of attending school for weeks added to the unrest. France's main labor union, the General Confederation of Labor, said rallies were held at 1,750 locations nationwide, with participation reaching 500,000 people.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said Saturday (local time) that 1,200 people had been arrested across France and that 150 police officers had been injured in the protests.

A significant number of demonstrators were spotted wearing yellow fluorescent vests at the protest sites. The rally in Paris initially proceeded largely peacefully, with participants singing the French national anthem and marching to live music.

But violent clashes between protesters and security forces erupted in parts of Paris — including Place de la République in the northeast of the city — as well as in other major cities such as Marseille and Lyon, plunging those areas into chaos.

Wire photographs showed cars burning and shops being looted in city centers, streets thick with tear gas and water cannon spray, and masked demonstrators squaring off against police. In Limoges, a small city in southwestern France, the town hall was set ablaze by protesters.

At Place de la République in Paris, masked demonstrators hurled fireworks at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons, turning the area into a scene of dense smoke and cascading water.

About 20 protesters were arrested in western Paris after attacking two media outlets, including the conservative broadcaster CNews. Police said roughly 100 people were detained in Paris alone.

In Marseille, France's second-largest city, downtown shops and a police station were damaged by protesters, and the city hall was briefly breached.

Those who stormed the building spray-painted the anarchist letter "A" on its walls and chanted "We are going to take the Bastille" — invoking the storming of the Bastille prison during the French Revolution of 1789, a symbol of the overthrow of royal oppression.

In Lyon, France's third-largest city, a tourist information office was set on fire after masked protesters threw fireworks.

France's Interior Ministry said looting attempts, attacks on police officers, arson targeting street infrastructure, and assaults on government buildings and media outlets were also reported in Toulouse, Grenoble and Angers. It said about 400 people had been arrested nationwide as of that point.

President Emmanuel Macron, who had urged citizens to protest peacefully ahead of the demonstrations on Saturday (local time), responded to the violence by declaring that "there is no place for violence in France" and vowing to strictly punish vandalism and looting.

Prime Minister Lecornu said police and gendarmerie had fought against "extremely intense violence" to protect citizens and asked the public to support them.

Some former key figures of the Yellow Vest movement, which organized the rally, took part in the protests. Far-left presidential contender Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La France Insoumise, also appeared at the scene, according to the Associated Press and other outlets. He has drawn criticism for stoking the unrest by vocally backing the students' demands for better school conditions.

Marine Le Pen, a lawmaker of the far-right Rassemblement National who leads polls ahead of the presidential election set to begin next April, blamed the violence on far-left forces, accusing them of "contaminating" the protests' original purpose. In a post on social media, she wrote that "legitimate social demands have once again been taken hostage by the far left and figures like Mélenchon," adding that "they are trying to plunge France into chaos by justifying violence and claiming disorder as a right."

With hundreds of thousands heeding the call of Yellow Vest organizers to take to the streets, observers are asking whether the movement — which spread nationwide eight years ago and cornered the Macron government — is now gearing up for a full revival ahead of next year's presidential election.


ken@heraldcorp.com