Police fire tear gas, clash with demonstrators as hundreds of thousands protest in France

PARIS, France — French police fired tear gas and clashed with some protesters on Saturday as thousands marched across France against soaring living costs and police violence, with some demonstrators dressed as clowns and witches for Halloween.

While the third consecutive weekend of nationwide protests was largely peaceful, tensions erupted in several cities, including the southern port city of Marseille and Paris, where demonstrators clashed with police.

Turnout stood at 320,000 nationwide, the interior ministry said, lower than the 410,000 seen the previous Saturday and 550,000 on October 17, when riots erupted across the country.

Clashes erupted between police and some demonstrators in Paris as the protest march reached its final destination, with tear gas filling the streets, AFP journalists saw.

Dozens of masked people dressed in black used hammers to pry up paving stones and hurl them at police.

At least one incendiary device was also thrown at security forces. Police responded with tear gas and several baton charges.

Some wore costumes ranging from Spider-Man to Frankenstein as they walked through eastern Paris while a helicopter circled overhead.

Placards read: “No need for tear gas to make our future look bleak” and “Dressed up as an angry citizen for Halloween.”

“A hard core of several hundred rioters” at the rear of the march was attacking police with projectiles, including a Molotov cocktail, the Paris police prefecture said. Officers were “manoeuvring to restore public order,” it added.

Authorities said the dispersal of the demonstration was otherwise proceeding without difficulty.

A water cannon truck was positioned near the point where the march, which drew 70,000 people according to the police prefecture, was scheduled to disperse.

But the protests drew a smaller crowd in Paris than the previous weekend, when an estimated 110,000 people took to the streets.

In Lyon, France’s third-largest city, people threw projectiles at police, prompting officers to fire tear gas, according to a journalist at the scene.

In the southern city of Toulouse, police used water cannon against an unauthorized protest that drew several thousand people, mostly young demonstrators, some of them in costume.

“We say no to the cost of living, no to the far right, yes to high school students’ demands, yes to giving citizens a voice,” Camille Guerin, 31, said in the western city of Nantes.

Officers had made 27 arrests by 2:00 pm on Saturday, compared with 217 arrests a week ago.

An aide to Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on Friday that police had prepared for street violence on a scale “comparable” to the unrest two weeks ago, when shops were looted and public buildings set ablaze.

Between 400 and 800 hard-left activists were expected in Paris, said an informed source.

‘Struggle is classy’

The demonstrations come in a febrile political climate, with presidential elections less than six months away and far-right leader Marine Le Pen topping opinion polls.

The protest movement, bringing together Yellow Vest activists, trade unions, and high school and university students, initially focused on the rising cost of living, inequality, and deteriorating learning conditions.

Following a security clampdown and serious injuries to some protesters, the movement broadened its demands to include greater protection of civil liberties and the right to protest.

Similar youth-led demonstrations have been seen across Europe in recent weeks.

Thousands of young Germans took to the streets nationwide on Saturday.

In the northern French city of Lille, 47-year-old Aurelie Herrmann danced at the protest.

“I dance because on television they only show damage and destruction, whereas you can perfectly well demonstrate in good spirits,” she said.

“Struggle is classy, it needs to come back into fashion.”

New school blockades

Student protesters complained the police did not authorize a march through the center of the French capital and vowed to stage new blockades of high schools and universities next week.

“Starting this Tuesday, we will blockade our universities and high schools, and we will do so again on Thursday before joining the demonstration on November 5 called by workers and trade unions,” said Sabrine Kharbach, spokeswoman for the Student Union.

Ahead of the protests, some shopkeepers barricaded their businesses.

In eastern Paris, Wael Boubaker, a cafe employee, covered a storefront with plywood panels.

“Everyone is staying home. No one is going to come and buy anything,” Boubaker said.

Hard-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who accused Macron’s government of “taking an increasingly authoritarian turn,” joined the march in Paris.

With the eurozone’s second-largest economy on the brink of recession and under pressure to rein in its debt, the government has limited scope to appease protesters through additional spending.

Alain Di Crescenzo, president of France’s chamber of commerce, said business owners were worried.

“Shopkeepers can’t wait for Saturday to be over,” Di Crescenzo told broadcaster France Inter.

Nunez said authorities had detected social media calls for Halloween gatherings on Saturday evening that urged protesters to spark a “revolution.”