The Paris protests turned violent Saturday as hundreds of thousands of people flooded streets across France, angry over the rising cost of living and standing behind high school students who have been demonstrating for weeks.
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France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, estimated that 550,000 people marched nationwide, including 110,000 in Paris, and said about 400 people were arrested. Organizers put the turnout much higher, claiming more than 800,000 participants across hundreds of protests.
The worst damage in the capital centered on Place de la République, a major square in eastern Paris where demonstrations often gather. A car and a newspaper kiosk were set on fire there, and police fired tear gas and turned water cannons on violent groups. Young people were seen looting and setting fires as night fell. Nuñez’s office reported a growing number of violent incidents, including assaults on police officers, and said officers were working to keep small groups from reaching government buildings.
The most shocking injury came outside the capital. Nuñez confirmed that a young demonstrator lost a hand during protests in Saint-Étienne, a city in central France.
Most of the people who joined the Paris protests were peaceful. The main march moved toward the northwest of the city as crowds waved French flags and sang the national anthem, backed by protesters playing trumpets and violins.
The Paris protests trace back to a single school. Students at a suburban high school north of Paris walked out in support of their striking teachers, and that demonstration snowballed into the largest student protest movement France has seen in decades. Teenagers across the country are demanding better conditions for learning, and the walkouts have disrupted schools nationwide and led to arrests and clashes along the way.
On October 6, the interior ministry counted about 256,000 protesters nationwide, including 56,000 in Paris, with more than 400 people detained. Climate activist Greta Thunberg showed up earlier this week to stand with students at a high school in Saint-Denis, a suburb just north of Paris.
By Saturday, the student movement had merged with broader anger over money. Fuel prices and everyday costs are climbing, and adults joined the kids in the streets. Taxi drivers staged rolling roadblocks around Paris airports and said they planned to keep them going through Saturday, while some farmers talked about bringing tractors into the protests.
Sonia Mabrouk, a 40 year old Paris mother, marched alongside her daughter, a high school student. She told The Associated Press she came out against everything going wrong in the country and blasted “policies that favour the rich and always hit the poorest people in their wallets.” A 19 year old protester named Lola told Reuters that people were in the streets over a long list of issues.
Mabrouk also marched with the yellow vests, the movement that shook France starting in 2018. Those protests began over a fuel tax hike and grew into weekly demonstrations against the cost of living, named for the bright safety vests French drivers are required to keep in their cars. At their peak, the yellow vest protests brought the worst rioting Paris had seen in years, with cars torched, stores looted and the Arc de Triomphe covered in graffiti.
