Paris (France) (AFP) – Police and protesters clashed violently in Paris and other French cities Saturday as half a million people marched against soaring inflation. One demonstrator’s hand was blown off, multiple blazes were set, and dozens of shops were stripped bare by looters. The widespread unrest follows weeks of student protests and deepens political uncertainty in France as it prepares for elections in six months to replace President Emmanuel Macron. Macron said on X late Saturday: “Those who carried out vandalism, attacked administrative offices or businesses, or carried out looting — even in our town halls, will be prosecuted and punished.”
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu slammed the “violence of extreme intensity” during the day. Around 550,000 people turned out for the demonstrations, with some 400 arrests made, according to the interior ministry, while the CGT union claimed 800,000 participants. Police used tear gas and water cannons against masked protesters in Paris and other cities who threw projectiles and aimed fireworks. Several parked cars were torched in the capital, with smoke rising over the center.
In the southern city of Saint-Etienne, a male protester had his hand blown off by a police crowd-control grenade, a police source told AFP. His maiming came after a 15-year-old lost his hand on October 5 to a police stun grenade during another protest in the city of Lens. In Lyon, protesters set ablaze a tourist office in the city center, and smashed their way into town halls in the cities of Marseille and Lille, along with a police compound in Bordeaux, vandalizing the premises before leaving. In the city of Limoges, flames reached the roof of the town hall after a group attacked the building post-protests. Dozens of shops were looted in Paris, Marseille, Nice, Bordeaux, and Lille, with an Apple store stripped, as AFP journalists observed.
A crowd of more than 300 protesters attempted to move up Paris’s Champs-Elysees, home to flagship luxury stores. As police fired tear gas to block their way, they yelled, “All cops are bastards.” Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire remarked that “entire streets have been devastated” in the capital.
Masked youths carried out looting and confrontations on the sidelines of marches that were largely peaceful and attracted people of all ages, including families with children. In Paris, tens of thousands marched across the east and north of the city in one major march, with some shouting, “Everyone hates the police” and “Macron, resign.” One demonstrator, Jules Petrichor, 47, who had brought his son, said: “There was a good atmosphere and then suddenly they (the police) started gassing us, even though nothing was happening. Naturally, that worsened things, and the hot-heads got hot-headed.”
Demonstrators’ hostility towards the police sharpened over the course of the preceding student protests, during which several teens were maimed and thousands arrested. France’s Yellow Vest movement, which eight years ago staged street protests against Macron’s government over planned fuel tax hikes, had called for Saturday’s “yellow and youth” demonstrations. The principal grievance was the cost of living, exacerbated in part by the war in the Middle East, which has helped send inflation soaring in Europe as elsewhere. However, there were other issues as well. High school student Kamil Alahyan, 18, stated he was protesting “for so many reasons — the elections coming up in 2027, politicians who lie, the ultra-rich who’ve been taking more and more wealth over the past 10 years.”
Opposition politicians vying to succeed Macron have seized upon the protests. Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who has sided with the police, tweeted: “Looting, pillaging, attacking police — rioters have once again sullied the October 17 demonstrations.” Her far-left rival, Jean-Luc Melenchon, who supported the student protests and Saturday’s demonstrations, urged demonstrators to avoid any looting, describing it as “contrary to our methods.”
Several protesters sought to draw parallels with the French Revolution of 1789. “It’s the Revolution — we’re taking the Bastille!” some shouted in Marseille during the forced entry of the mayor’s offices. In the western city of La Rochelle, marchers streamed behind a placard reading: “Revolution or death.” In the southern city of Montpellier, a giant blue sign reading “The people will win” was unfurled above a central square. “The government is trembling, and it’s right to tremble because when the French people are angry, they never let up,” Ryad Rani, the head of the LSU high school student representative body, told journalists in Paris.
© 2024 AFP
