France rocked by nationwide protests, clashes, blazes
France woke up Sunday to devastated streets after clashes between police and protesters, mass looting and fires erupted nationwide as marches against rising costs of living degenerated into “extreme” violence.
Violence broke out across France on Saturday during the latest day of demonstrations against hardship in schools and the cost of living.
Tens of thousands of protesters, mostly young people, rallied at the heart of the French capital on Saturday in the latest act of a movement that has been rocking France to the core for more than a month now.
The demonstrations were spearheaded by students demanding education reforms but quickly swelled to channel mounting anger over failing public services, rising living costs and a future that feels increasingly out of reach.
The protests come just six months ahead of elections to replace President Emmanuel Macron.
France’s Yellow Vest movement, which staged street protests eight years ago 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, pushed up in part by the war in the Middle East, especially the US aggression against Iran, that has helped send inflation soaring in Europe as elsewhere.
“We’re sick of slaving away for poverty wages while our rents keep going up,” teacher Regine Monfroid told AFP in the eastern city of Strasbourg.
But there were other issues.
High school student Kamil Alahyan, 18, said 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”.
‘It’s the Revolution’
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 as they forced their way into the mayor’s offices.
Whole streets in Paris “have been devastated”, the city’s mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said as groups of masked young men torched parked cars and ransacked shops.
1,800 people arrested
More than 1,800 people have been arrested on Saturday, the country’s Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said.
The Interior Ministry said 550,000 people attended the protests while the CGT union, which took part, said 800,000 people participated.
Police used tear gas and water cannon against protesters who threw projectiles and aimed fireworks.
During and after those demonstrations, gangs of youths roamed city streets, sporadically confronting police, while setting fires and attacking shuttered stores to break in and empty their shelves.
Scores of shops – supermarkets, pharmacies, luxury boutiques, clothing retailers, opticians, cosmetic vendors and consumer electronics stores – were looted in Paris, Marseille, Nice, Nantes, Bordeaux, Limoges, Lille, Toulouse and Strasbourg.
The looting added to a day of destruction and vandalism, with town halls in several cities targeted.
The town hall in the city of Limoges – more than 140 years old – was largely destroyed by a blaze set by masked protesters who broke in, according to the region’s top official. Two others were broken into and vandalized in Marseille and Lille.
A police compound in Bordeaux was also vandalized, while in Lyon protesters set ablaze a tourist office.
The violence has drawn global headlines – in the United States, Vice President JD Vance blamed immigration for the unrest.
“Western liberals imported the third world into France and other countries in the name of diversity and compassion. They ignored fundamental questions of assimilation and compatibility,” he said on X.
President Macron said that “those who carried out vandalism, attacked administrative offices or businesses, or carried out looting – even in our town halls, will be prosecuted and punished”.