Clashes erupt in Paris as over 400,000 rally across France over schools, living costs

Paris:  Clashes erupted in Paris Saturday at the end of a major demonstration as more than 400,000 people protested across France over school funding and soaring living costs, challenging President Emmanuel Macron’s government a week after widespread rioting and looting.

The Paris march began peacefully. But near its endpoint at Porte de Vincennes, some protesters threw projectiles while police fired volleys of tear gas and used water cannons to disperse people.

The Interior Ministry put nationwide turnout at 410,000, including 110,000 in Paris. Authorities had confined the capital’s march to the city’s southeastern edge, keeping protesters away from central neighbourhoods hit by last weekend’s destruction.

Elsewhere in France, police used tear gas in Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand and Strasbourg and water cannons in Nice and Nantes, French media reported. In Marseille, officers fired tear gas during clashes with several dozen people near the march’s endpoint.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said 64 people had been arrested in connection with Saturday’s demonstration and 40 placed in police custody. Those arrested included six minors. Most arrests concerned suspected weapons offences or participation in a group preparing violence or property damage, the office said.

The unrest is testing Macron’s authority in the final months of his presidency before voters choose his successor in May. The stakes are high: the far-right National Rally has accused his government of failing to protect the public and urged people to channel their anger into votes for them.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez had announced a nationwide deployment of up to 70,000 officers, backed by helicopters, armoured vehicles and water cannons.

Trade unions led the procession, followed by protesters in raincoats carrying flags and handmade placards.

Camille Chesnier, 27, said she had been unable to find work despite having an engineering degree and a master’s degree.

“There are enormous numbers of people in the same situation as me but who aren’t privileged and who find themselves living on the streets and in squats and, frankly, it’s very tough,” she said.

A small protest became a national movement

What began last month as a protest over staff shortages at one high school southeast of Paris has spread nationwide, drawing students demanding better schools and workers seeking higher wages and pensions.

In Paris, Bénédicte Pittion, a 46-year-old teacher, marched through steady rain with her 16-year-old daughter, Garance, a high school student. Both had supported the movement from the start, but this was their first protest together.

“The young people who have been demonstrating have not been heard, and as a parent and as a teacher, I stand with them,” Pittion said.

Garance said she had been “really scared” to attend after seeing images of last weekend’s violence, but argued that staying away would hand the government a victory.

Public middle and high schools lost 15.4 million teaching hours in the 2024-25 school year because absent teachers were not replaced, according to Education Ministry figures. That amounted to 7.5 per cent of scheduled teaching time.

Macron met high school representatives Friday. They said he had promised to overhaul university admissions, but called for protests to continue until concrete measures are announced.

Organisers from the “yellow vest” protest movement called for another day of rallies Oct. 31 to defend the right to demonstrate.

Some protests were banned

Soumaya Abed, a 58-year-old nurse wearing a red CGT union vest, said she had been joining protests for more than 30 years, but had never seen one start at Porte d’Italie, on the capital’s outskirts.

“They are using what happened last week as an excuse to quiet protesters,” she said. “But it won’t stop the movement. It won’t stop students from demanding better conditions in schools.”

In Marseille, police put attendance at 17,000, while the CGT union estimated 100,000. In the southwestern city of Toulouse, 26,500 people joined the protests, according to authorities. Authorities had banned rallies in cities including Lyon, Nice and Montpellier.

Trade unions have criticised the bans, calling them violations of freedom of expression, which is protected by the constitution.

Thousands also marched Saturday in Orléans, south of Paris, in a separate peaceful protest against the far right as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally held a two-day congress in the city.

Macron, a centrist, has entered the crisis in the final stretches of his term with his popularity at its lowest since he took office in 2017. He has said that the measures are needed to protect city centres, businesses and public buildings.

Nuñez acknowledged Monday that police had lost control in some cities during last weekend’s unrest, when more than half a million people took to the streets, and some 3,000 shops across France were damaged or looted amid street violence not seen in years.

He offered to resign, but Macron refused the offer.

Shops board up and museums close

Gendarmes stood guard Saturday beneath the Arc de Triomphe, and shopkeepers boarded up storefronts across Paris. Near the Saint-Lazare train station Saturday, Akram Ahmed, a 34-year-old contractor, was boarding up an optician’s shop.

“I got the call last night,” he said. “The owner seemed desperate. He said I was saving his life.”

Major museums, including the Louvre, Orsay Museum, Picasso Museum and Grand Palais — where a major Cézanne exhibit is on display — were shuttered Saturday.

Art Basel, one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art fairs, opened to the public Friday, but only for the day, with the threat of unrest prompting organisers to cancel the weekend programme.

Students and workers are angry

Student groups want 250,000 more places in higher education and an end to selection through Parcoursup, the national admissions system.

Their joint 10-point plan also calls for more teachers and repairs to schools and universities.

They are also seeking help with everyday costs: an extra 200 euros (USD 224) a month in student grants and a rent freeze in public student housing.

Energy prices in France were 21.3 per cent higher in September than a year earlier, helping drive overall inflation to 3.1 per cent, according to the national statistics agency, INSEE.

Paris protester Louis Ledoux-Xatard voiced frustration over inequality.

“Looking at countries like the United States, we don’t want to end up like them, where part of the population has everything and the others have nothing,” he said.

“I never imagined that I’d be taking to the streets so much before my thirties.”