Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of France as a vastly reinforced security presence appeared to have averted a repeat of last weekend’s unrest, despite isolated clashes in several cities.
Some 110,000 people marched peacefully through the French capital, according to police numbers. Waving flags, they denounced the growing cost of living and rising inequality.
“Down with the state, the police and the fascists,” the crowd chanted.
At the end of the march, police fired tear gas and used water cannon to try to disperse small groups of hooded youths, but the violence was far less than last Saturday, when looters and vandals went on the rampage in Paris.
Watch: French police fire tear gas at protesters in Lyon
Clashes also flared in Lyon, Bordeaux and Grenoble, while police fired volleys of tear gas at demonstrators in Clermont-Ferrand, Lille and Nice.
In France’s second city, Marseille, youths dragged large metal sheets to block a street, set fire to rubbish bins, and hurled rocks and bottles at riot police, with the confrontations continuing as night fell.
Police make pre-emptive searches
The Interior ministry said 410,000 people took part in nationwide protests, while unions claimed turnout was double that.
Authorities deployed 70,000 police officers and gendarmes, 10,000 more than a week earlier, after conceding they had underestimated the scale of the unrest.
French gendarmes stand amidst tear gas during a demonstration in Nantes
“We have to be ultra, ultra responsive,” Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told reporters, accusing far-left activists and criminal gangs of seeking to foment violence.
Mr Nuñez told reporters that police had arrested 135 people nationwide by early afternoon, many following pre-emptive searches that he said had uncovered fireworks, ball bearings and other items that could be used as weapons.
Much of central Paris took on the appearance of a city under lockdown, with shopkeepers boarding up storefronts, museums closing their doors and more than 20 metro stations shut.
Business groups urged retailers to remain closed after thousands of shops and businesses were damaged or looted across France last weekend.
Thousands of people are seen marching in Orleans
“There are hardly any customers, so it’s not really worth staying open,” said Oskar, manager of a Kiton boutique in Paris.
Several of the capital’s best-known cultural institutions, including the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay and the Paris Opera, closed for the day as a precaution, leaving tourists frustrated.
“Everything’s boarded up and we’re not quite sure where we should be,” said Xavier Dolliole, a tourist from the US city of New Orleans.
Protests ripple across Europe
The nationwide unrest began with small student demonstrations in suburban Paris last month to denounce school conditions.
After it spread into a broader protest against the state of the economy in France, it also prompted demonstrators to take to the streets in neighbouring countries.
Belgian police used tear gas and pepper spray as they clashed in Brussels with anti-government demonstrators today, while protests took place in Italian cities for a second weekend.
Leftist leaders in France denounced a government move to limit the number of authorised marches in many cities, as well as a last-minute decision to shift the Paris event to the southeastern fringes of the capital.
Pedestrians walk past boarded up shops in Paris
Presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who joined the Paris rally, hailed what he called a “magnificent mass display of collective discipline and self-restraint”.
He predicted the protests would continue until President Emmanuel Macron, whose mandate expires next year, addressed the social malaise in France, one of the world’s richest nations but with a growing debt mountain that has alarmed investors.
“Given the current situation, I think he will come to understand that this will happen again every week. There is still time for (Macron) to give in. After that, the only thing left to him will be the exit door,” Mr Mélenchon told reporters.
Far-right party holds congress
Many demonstrators have accused the government of overreacting, as soldiers were dispatched to patrol the Champs-Élysées, a grand boulevard lined with luxury shops and restaurants.
“We shed tears for shops, not for the people who are being impoverished all year round,” said Clara Lebbadi, a 22-year-old arts student.
“My friend and I almost didn’t come because we were scared, but we came precisely because it’s important not to let repression win,” she added.
The first authorised march passed off peacefully in Orléans, around 120km south of Paris, where demonstrators rallied against Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, which is holding a party congress in the city.
Protests took place across France last weekend
Thousands of people yelling anti-fascist slogans marched against Ms Le Pen, and also against Mr Macron.
“Macron resign. Le Pen in prison,” the crowd yelled. Police put their numbers at 11,000 while organisers said 26,000 took part.
The unrest highlighted tensions in France ahead of the vote, which Ms Le Pen is best-placed, according to surveys, to win.
A shooting west of Paris yesterday heightened tensions. A gunman suspected of acting out of Islamophobic hatred killed one person and wounded four others, including a 12-year-old girl.
“We have come to tell the far right, face-to-face, that we are not afraid,” said Bally Bagayoko, the mayor of Saint-Denis and a member of Mr Mélenchon’s France Unbowed party.
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