320,000 march across France in third weekend of cost-of-living protests as clashes erupt at end of Paris rally
Around 320,000 people demonstrated across France on Saturday in a third weekend of youth-led protests over the cost of living and public services, with police firing tear gas after clashes broke out at the end of the Paris march.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across France on Saturday for a third consecutive weekend of protests over the rising cost of living, strained public services and inequality, in a youth-led movement that has now spread to several other European countries. The French Interior Ministry estimated the nationwide turnout at around 320,000, including about 70,000 in Paris, where a largely peaceful march ended in clashes between police and a hard core of demonstrators.
The demonstrations brought together high-school and university students, trade unions and a resurgent Yellow Vest movement, united by complaints about household budgets, high fuel prices, overcrowded classrooms, deteriorating schools and a university admissions system many students consider unfair. Some marchers wore Halloween costumes, including clowns and witches, and carried placards reading 'No need for tear gas to make our future look bleak' and 'Dressed up as an angry citizen for Halloween'.
The turnout was lower than in the previous two weekends, when the ministry counted about 410,000 demonstrators last Saturday and 550,000 on 17 October, when riots and looting across the country caught security forces off guard. Youth organisations, however, put Saturday's turnout far higher, at nearly half a million nationwide including 200,000 in Paris, a familiar gap between official and organiser counts that reflects different counting methods rather than a single agreed figure.
Security was exceptionally heavy. Around 70,000 police officers and gendarmes, including elite units, were deployed across France, and Interior Minister Laurent Nunez had warned in advance of a 'very high risk' of disorder, particularly after dark on Halloween, amid what he described as calls for insurrection that night. After the marches he said the authorities were bracing for scattered unrest later in the evening and would 'respond firmly' to anyone looking for a fight.
In Paris the march began near Porte de Bagnolet, on the eastern edge of the city, after France's top administrative court upheld a ban on a route through the centre between the Nation and Bastille squares. Instead, the procession followed the Boulevards des Marechaux, the ring of avenues skirting the edge of the capital, in a march that remained joyful for hours as students led the way hand in hand, watched by stewards from the CGT, one of France's largest unions.
The mood changed as the march reached its destination at Porte de Charenton in the south-east of the city. According to AFP journalists at the scene and the Paris police prefecture, dozens of masked people dressed in black used hammers to pry up paving stones and hurl them at officers, threw glass bottles and fireworks, and hurled at least one incendiary device, described by police as a Molotov cocktail. Officers responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades and several baton charges, and smoke filled the streets as dusk fell.
The Paris police prefecture said a 'hardcore of several hundred rioters' at the rear of the march had attacked officers with projectiles, and a water cannon truck was positioned near the dispersal point. Clashes were also reported in other cities: police fired tear gas in Lyon, France's third-largest city, after protesters threw projectiles, and tear gas was also used in Marseille and Toulouse. Firstpost, citing the authorities, reported around 300 arrests nationwide by Saturday, compared with about 800 at the same point the previous weekend.
The movement has been building since late September, when students began mobilising over school conditions and were later joined by unions and Yellow Vest protesters as President Emmanuel Macron's minority government opened talks on its 2027 budget. Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, whose standing has risen in recent weeks ahead of next April's presidential election, marched at the head of the Paris demonstration, and protesters in Nantes and elsewhere demanded action on living costs, a voice for citizens and an end to widening inequality.
Saturday's protests were not confined to France. Youth-led rallies over housing affordability, living costs and demands for better public services also took place in Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands, in what organisers present as a Europe-wide wave of young people's anger at the same pressures: expensive housing, stretched services and wages that do not keep pace with prices. The French protests have become the most visible part of that wave because of their size and their three-week run.
Student protesters said the fight is not over. After complaining that police had not authorised a march through the centre of Paris, they vowed to stage new blockades of high schools and universities next week, keeping pressure on the government as the budget debate continues. The combination of street protests and school blockades has been the movement's signature tactic since September, and organisers appear determined to sustain it into November.
What happens next will depend on two things: whether the Halloween-night unrest the minister warned about materialises, and whether the government offers concessions on living costs, education or the budget that the protesters can present as a win. A smaller turnout on Saturday could mean the movement is losing steam, or simply that the heavy police presence and the out-of-centre route discouraged some marchers. Either way, three weekends of nationwide demonstrations have already made the cost of living the central political question in France as the presidential election approaches.
More in News
NewsQuad ministers pledge reliable supply chains and warn over export curbs at Atlanta talks, without naming China
NewsVietnam cuts electricity price by 2% and scraps gasoline tax from today to ease costs for households and businesses
News