Thousands marched over school funding and living costs on Saturday, while up to 70,000 officers were deployed to prevent a repeat of last weekend’s looting and arson. Some rallies were banned, and tear gas was used in Lyon and Clermont-Ferrand.
Thousands of students and workers marched in Paris and other French cities on Saturday over school funding and soaring living costs. Authorities confined the Paris march to the city’s southeastern edge, away from the centre, and banned rallies in places including Lyon, Nice and Montpellier. The Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay, the Picasso Museum and the Grand Palais closed their doors as a precaution. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said up to 70,000 officers would be deployed nationwide, backed by helicopters, armoured vehicles and water cannon.
Marches and policing
Several thousand people marched from Porte d’Italie in Paris early in the afternoon, a smaller crowd than a week earlier. Trade unions led the procession, followed by protesters in raincoats carrying flags and handmade placards. Authorities said they wanted to prevent another weekend of looting, burned cars and attacks on public buildings.
Police used tear gas in Lyon, where the rally had been banned, on Saturday morning. In Clermont-Ferrand, officers used tear gas and stun grenades to push back demonstrators trying to reach the city centre, French media reported.
According to Le Monde’s report of Mr Nunez’s midday briefing, 135 people had been arrested nationwide by 1pm. He said police had recorded no major incident at that stage. Authorities counted 35,000 demonstrators by 1pm, against 60,000 at the same time the previous Saturday, and 136 protest actions against 264. These are provisional police figures and not final totals. Officers made more than 1,000 checks in the Paris region and seized items including metal balls, fireworks mortars and replica airsoft weapons, according to Mr Nunez. Those allegations are attributed to police.
Le Monde also reported:
- Lyon: 17 arrests in the morning, before demonstrators gathered around Place Jean-Macé. Police fired more tear gas at about 2.16pm as people tried to proceed despite the restrictions, with a helicopter overhead and metro stations closed. Trade unionists, parents and students took part.
- Marseille: An administrative court partly overturned protest bans in Bouches-du-Rhone after a challenge by the Ligue des droits de l’homme, allowing demonstrations in towns such as Istres and Martigues. It left in place the ban on certain protective equipment. Police reportedly confiscated protective equipment, saline solution and megaphones, but several thousand people still gathered near Les Reformes for an authorised union march.
- Orleans: Thousands also marched peacefully against the far right while Marine Le Pen’s National Rally held a two-day congress in the city. The main march ended peacefully at Campo Santo, though a separate, unauthorised procession later formed. Some protesters demanded the release of undocumented migrants after a bus carrying them was reportedly stopped before reaching Orleans. The circumstances need confirmation.
From one school to a national movement
What began last month as a protest over staff shortages at one high school southeast of Paris has grown into a national movement. Students demanding better schools and workers seeking higher wages and pensions have brought anger over living standards into the final months of President Emmanuel Macron’s presidency. More than half a million people took to the streets last Saturday, and some 3,000 shops across France were damaged or looted over the weekend.
Mr Macron met high school representatives on Friday. They said he had promised to overhaul university admissions, but called for protests to continue until concrete measures are announced.
According to the national statistics agency INSEE, energy prices were 21.3% higher in September than a year earlier, helping push overall inflation to 3.1%. Its detailed figures show diesel up 44.1%, petrol up 25.7%, heating oil and other liquid fuels up 64.6%, and some fresh vegetables up 35.8%, partly because of hot weather. Core inflation was 1.5%.
AP, citing Education Ministry figures, reports that French public middle and high schools lost 15.4 million teaching hours in 2024-25 because absent teachers were not replaced, about 7.5% of scheduled time. Student groups are demanding 250,000 more higher-education places, an end to selection through the Parcoursup admissions system, an extra EUR200 a month in grants and a rent freeze in public student housing.
Laurent Nunez offered to resign last weekend after acknowledging that police had lost control in some cities during the violence on 17 October. Mr Macron rejected his resignation, according to the Associated Press. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu visited Limoges on Friday after its town hall was set on fire.
Shops board up and museums close
Gendarmes stood guard beneath the Arc de Triomphe as shopkeepers boarded up storefronts across Paris. Near Saint-Lazare station, Akram Ahmed, a 34-year-old contractor, was boarding up an optician’s shop. “I got the call last night,” he said. “The owner seemed desperate. He said I was saving his life.”
The Louvre, Orsay, Picasso Museum and the Grand Palais, where a major Cezanne exhibition is on, were shuttered. According to the Paris tourism office and French arts reporting, the Musee de l’Orangerie, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Bourse de Commerce and Fondation Cartier also closed. Art Basel, one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art fairs, opened to the public on Friday for the day only, and organisers cancelled the weekend programme because of the threat of unrest. It said it had deployed extra security and continuous perimeter patrols at the Grand Palais.
