Violence flares during nighttime protests in France

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across France on Saturday to protest living costs and inequality. While the Ministry of the Interior announced the number of participants nationwide was 410,000, trade unions argued that this figure reached double that amount. Marches that remained peaceful throughout the day witnessed clashes between police and demonstrators in major cities such as Paris and Marseille during the night hours.

At least 110,000 people participated in the main demonstration in Paris in the southeastern part of France. Following the end of the action, around 500 hooded youths confronted the police; riot control teams intervened with tear gas and water cannons. In Marseille, the second-largest city, youths set fire to trash cans to block roads and hurled stones and bottles at security forces. Authorities reported that far-right activists sought clashes with leftist groups in Nice and Montpellier. Clashes also occurred in the cities of Lyon, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand, Lille, Rennes, Nantes, and Toulouse.

Security forces deployed 70,000 police officers and gendarmes nationwide, while key cultural institutions such as the Louvre, the Orsay Museum, and the Paris Opera house remained closed as a precaution. Similar anti-government demonstrations were held in Italy and Albania, as well as in the Belgian capital of Brussels. Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon predicted that protests would continue until President Emmanuel Macron finds a solution to the social unrest.