France Mobilises 70,000 Officers As Protests Spread Across The Country

Protesters filled French streets on Saturday while 70,000 police officers kept watch.

Although scattered clashes took place in several cities, the unrest looked considerably milder than it had a week before.

According to police estimates, tens of thousands of people marched peacefully in the capital.

They protested the high cost of living and accused President Emmanuel Macron of slashing public services while ignoring growing inequality.

“Down with the state, the police and the fascists,” some of the flag-waving crowds chanted.

In other parts of the country, police used tear gas on demonstrators in Clermont-Ferrand, Grenoble, Lille and Nice.

In Nice, a water cannon was also brought in after protesters ignored instructions to retreat.

In Marseille and Lyon, the country’s second and third largest cities, hooded youths clashed with police.

Compared with October 17, when nationwide protests turned into some of the worst disorder France has seen in years, the government put 10,000 additional police and gendarmes on the streets.

“We have to be ultra, ultra responsive,” said Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who has blamed far-left groups and criminal gangs for stirring up violence.

Nunez told reporters that 135 people had been arrested across the country by early afternoon.

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Many arrests followed pre-emptive searches, which he said turned up fireworks, ball bearings and other items that could serve as weapons.

Businesses and Museums Close Their Doors

Large parts of central Paris looked like a city in lockdown. Shop owners boarded up their windows, museums shut, and over 20 metro stations were closed.

Business groups encouraged retailers to stay closed, following the damage and looting that hit thousands of shops and businesses across France the previous weekend.

“There are hardly any customers, so it’s not really worth staying open,” said Oskar, manager of a Kiton boutique in Paris.

As a precaution, some of the capital’s most famous cultural venues, among them the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay and the Paris Opera, closed for the day, which left tourists disappointed.

“Everything’s boarded up and we’re not quite sure where we should be,” said Xavier Dolliole, a tourist from the US city of New Orleans.

The path of Paris’s main march was only confirmed after a court dispute. It began when police issued a late order shifting organisers away from the city centre and toward the capital’s southeastern outskirts.

Police explained that the initial route crossed districts with many businesses, similar to those attacked last weekend.

Left-wing politicians countered that the last-minute change was meant to sow confusion and discourage turnout.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the hard-left leader who took part in the Paris rally, praised what he described as a “magnificent mass display of collective discipline and self-restraint”.

He warned that the demonstrations would carry on unless Macron tackled the country’s social unrest.

France is one of the world’s wealthiest nations, yet its mounting debt has worried investors.

“Given the current situation, I think he will come to understand that this will happen again every week. There is still time for (Macron) to give in. After that, the only thing left to him will be the exit door,” Melenchon told reporters.

Far-Right Party Gathers for Congress

Many protesters said the government had overreacted, pointing to the soldiers sent to patrol the Champs-Elysees, the grand avenue lined with luxury shops and restaurants.

“We shed tears for shops, not for the people who are being impoverished all year round,” said Clara Lebbadi, a 22-year-old arts student.

“My friend and I almost didn’t come because we were scared, but we came precisely because it’s important not to let repression win,” she added.

The first approved march of the day went off without incident in Orléans, roughly 120 km (75 miles) south of Paris.

There, demonstrators gathered in opposition to Marine Le Pen‘s far-right National Rally, which was holding a party congress in the city.

Tensions were further raised by a shooting west of Paris on Friday. A gunman believed to have been driven by Islamophobic hatred killed one person and injured four others, one of them a 12-year-old girl.

“We have come to tell the far right, face-to-face, that we are not afraid,” said Bally Bagayoko, the mayor of Saint-Denis and a member of Melenchon’s France Unbowed party.