Protesters filled French streets on Saturday as more than 100,000 demonstrators joined cost-of-living rallies organized by the Yellow Vests and youth movements.
Saturday’s demonstrations marked a drop in turnout compared with previous weekends and remained largely calm, authorities reported. The Ministry of the Interior said that 106,000 people demonstrated nationwide, including 24,000 in Paris. This compared with 146,000 people nationwide and 46,000 in Paris the previous week.
Student unions estimated the turnout higher, placing numbers at 200,000 people, with nearly 100,000 in the capital. Arrest figures also decreased, with the ministry recording 219 detentions nationwide and Paris prosecutors logging 45 arrests in the city.
France has experienced high-school blockades, strikes, and mass demonstrations for over a month. Protesters voiced anger over falling educational standards, rising living costs, low wages, and police violence, while several demonstrators carried signs criticizing President Emmanuel Macron.
Following initial looting during a major protest on October 17, authorities expanded the police presence, transport controls, and protest permit restrictions. Despite Marseille banning protests over the weekend, roughly 3,500 people took to the streets in France’s second-largest city.
Local media reported that police deployed tear gas and a water cannon in Marseille, sharing images of fires burning in a public square. In Lyon, approximately 8,000 people demonstrated as masked protesters chanted near street fires and police charged crowds with tear gas. Tear gas deployment also occurred in Nantes, Bordeaux, and Paris.
Demonstrators in several cities also targeted a new police bill that would grant police officers and gendarmes additional protection when using firearms in the line of duty. Supporters argue the measure prevents officers from being automatically presumed guilty of using excessive force, while unions condemn the legislation as a “license to kill” that shields law enforcement from accountability.
“What the so‑called ‘licence to kill’ law, which is being put to the vote next week, provides for is literally that a police officer who fires will first be presumed to have acted lawfully,” Sabrine Kharbach, spokesperson for the Student Union, said. She added that the bill creates “yet another layer of impunity for those who club us, gas us and maim us.”
Unions called for a fresh day of strikes on Tuesday after rejecting a government proposal to raise the minimum wage by 0.6 percent. Union representatives dismissed the offer as inadequate.
“The government has only given us crumbs, and we want the whole bakery,” Benjamin Ball, a member of the Yellow Vest movement, said.
Tuesday’s planned demonstrations coincide with the eighth anniversary of the original Gilet Jaune movement, which launched two years of protests over rising fuel prices at the start of the Macron administration in 2018. The Yellow Vests intend to mark the milestone on roundabouts and toll booths across France, according to the tracking website 17octobregiletjaune.net.
