France Protests Shrink to 320,000 in Third Weekend as 565 Are Arrested

France protests over the cost of living drew smaller crowds on Saturday, Oct. 31, the third weekend in a row of marches, as the Interior Ministry counted 320,000 people nationwide, down from 410,000 a week earlier, franceinfo reported. Organisers gave a higher figure, but their count fell too. Clashes broke out at the end of several marches, and police made 565 arrests by 9 p.m.

About 70,000 police officers and gendarmes were deployed to keep marches away from city centers after looting and damage to shops on Oct. 17. In Paris, the route started at Porte de Bagnolet in the east of the capital after the Conseil d’État, France’s top administrative court, upheld a ban on the traditional route between Bastille and Nation.

France protests by the numbers

The ministry counted 550,000 marchers on Oct. 17 and 410,000 on Oct. 24, including 110,000 in Paris. On Oct. 31 it recorded 70,000 in Paris. A coalition of youth and student unions, which put turnout at 800,000 on Oct. 24, counted nearly 500,000 on Saturday, including 200,000 in Paris. By a Boston Report calculation, the official nationwide count has fallen about 42% from the first Saturday and about 22% from the second, while the Paris count dropped about 36% in a week.

Sources: French Interior Ministry, organisers, franceinfo. Arrest counts were taken at different times of day and are not directly comparable. Table: The Boston Report

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said officers carried out 40,000 identity checks across France, 15,000 of them in the Paris region, according to franceinfo. Other cities drew sizable crowds: 13,500 people in Rennes by the prefecture’s count, up to 10,000 in Marseille, where no march had been declared, and about 3,000 in Strasbourg.

Clashes at the edges of the marches

Most marches were calm, officials said, but violence flared as they broke up. At Porte de Charenton in Paris, a “hard core of several hundred rioters” threw projectiles, including a Molotov cocktail, at officers, according to the Paris police prefecture. Five officers were injured in Paris, three of them by firebombs. Prosecutors opened an attempted-murder investigation after a Molotov cocktail hit gendarmes, 20 Minutes reported. Police also used tear gas in Lyon and charged groups of young people in Marseille.

The Interior Ministry said “radical elements” tried to enter several city centers, including Bordeaux, Nantes, Toulouse, Rennes and Lille, to damage and loot shops. Demonstrators’ demands ranged from rising prices and underfunded schools to how police have handled the high-school student protests where the movement began, according to franceinfo. Euronews reported early clashes in several major cities.

The anger has echoes beyond France. In Berlin, police counted about 5,000 people at a “Gen Z regelt” rally at the Brandenburg Gate, while organisers claimed 11,000, Euronews reported, and smaller youth-led marches took place in Italian cities including Milan, Turin and Bologna. In France, the movement grew out of high-school protests over school funding before unions and other groups joined it.

Macron’s response and the next dates

President Emmanuel Macron “considers that the electoral debate and the ballot box must take precedence over social democracy and the street,” people close to him told franceinfo on Sunday, six months before the presidential election. His aides said the government should answer protesters’ demands in the short term and the presidential campaign in the medium term, and that he wants high-school students back in class on Monday.

The calendar is still busy. High-school and student unions called for blockades of schools and universities on Tuesday and Thursday. France’s main labor unions, including the CFDT, CGT and FO, called a national day of strikes and marches for Thursday, Nov. 5. The “yellow vest” coordination that called the Oct. 31 marches urged more action on Nov. 6-7.

The unrest is shaping the 2027 race. Our report on Marine Le Pen’s campaign launch in Orléans covers the far right’s campaign launch, and our look at the UK budget shows similar money pressures across the Channel.

Sources

• franceinfo: What to remember from the Oct. 31 day of protests
• franceinfo: Macron says the ballot box must take precedence over the street
• Euronews: France’s third weekend of social protests sees lower turnout
• 20 Minutes: Oct. 31 protests, attempted-murder probe and arrests