FRENCH POLICE ARREST NEARLY 1,000 DURING NATIONWIDE PROTESTS

French police arrested nearly 1,000 people during nationwide protests on Saturday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said. Demonstrators marched over the cost of living and poor school conditions, with clashes following largely peaceful marches in several cities. The French interior ministry estimated turnout at 410,000, while trade unions put it at about 800,000. Nuñez said officers faced “an extremely elevated level of violence” from people who threw projectiles and aimed fireworks at police. He reported two serious injuries, one in Toulouse and another in Clermont-Ferrand.

In Paris, clashes broke out as a march from Porte d’Italie towards Porte de Vincennes dispersed. Nuñez said “several thousand radical activists gathered at the rear of the march, including around 500 individuals identified as rioters”. Police used tear gas and water cannon in several cities, including Paris. In Marseille, people set rubbish bins alight and used metal sheets to block streets, while people in Bordeaux removed boards from a shop. Nuñez said the clashes in Paris lasted around two hours.

Authorities deployed about 70,000 police officers and imposed restrictions in several cities ahead of Saturday’s demonstrations. Earlier in the week, President Emmanuel Macron had ordered that only recognised trade unions could organise demonstrations. Nuñez said authorities had recorded 385 arrests by the same point a week earlier, before the total reached 2,700 after the previous round of protests. He said people had vandalised and looted some shops on Saturday, on a smaller scale than the previous week. Authorities would remain “on high alert” overnight and into Sunday, he said.