Unrest
Mars Day of Protest in France, as Student Movement Turns National
Riots
broke out in several French cities alongside peaceful marches of tens of
thousands of people demonstrating against rising living costs and poor school
conditions.
Reporting
from Paris
Published
Oct. 17, 2026Updated Oct. 18, 2026, 2:59 a.m. ET
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/17/world/europe/france-protest-riots-marseille.html
Unrest
flared across France on Saturday amid demonstrations against rising living and
fuel costs that built on weeks of high school protests, heightening a
sense of fiscal and social crisis in the country.
More than
half a million people joined 110 marches throughout the country, according to
the interior ministry, making it the biggest day of protest since unrest began
to surge nationally roughly a month ago. One of France’s main unions, the
C.G.T., estimated a higher number of 800,000 protesters.
The
protests marked a convergence between a student-focused movement that has
spurred demonstrations
out of hundreds of schools, and a broader social movement that appeals to
French citizens of different ages.
In many
places, the protests were overtaken by violent confrontations between rioters
and police officers, including in Marseille, France’s second-largest city,
where people briefly broke into the city hall and knocked over a bust of
Marianne, a symbol of the French Republic, before the police cleared them out.
By nightfall, roughly 400 people, most of them adults, had been arrested across
the country, according to the interior minister, Laurent Nuñez.
Image
Protesters
in Place de la République in central Paris.Credit...Stephanie Lecocq/Reuters
Image
A person
throws a smoke flare toward French gendarmes during a demonstration in
Bordeaux.Credit...Christophe Archambault/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A tourism
office in Lyon was also broken into and set on fire by rioters, many of them
dressed in black clothes, masks and goggles. In Paris, where more than 100,000
people marched peacefully in the streets, a few hundred rioters also faced off
against riot police, mostly in the Place de la République, a central square,
according to the police. Cars were burned and storefronts smashed, the police
said.
President
Emmanuel Macron said the culprits would be “prosecuted and punished.”
In a post
on social media, he added: “We will all stand united against the sowers of
chaos, who seek only to bring down our institutions and prevent those who
peacefully express their demands from doing so.”
Since the
student protests began last month, highlighting poor conditions in French
schools, hundreds of people have been injured amid escalating clashes with riot
police. Many of those injured have been young people, including a 15-year-old
whose left hand was blown off by a stun grenade, and thousands have been
arrested, most of them minors, law enforcement officials said.
On
Saturday, that youth-led movement evolved
into a wider display of anger at the government of President Emmanuel Macron,
who leaves office next year after a decade in power that has come to be defined
by political crisis and economic stagnation.
The
protests came as the government tries to pass a belt-tightening budget and as France approaches
presidential elections in 2027. The French government has acknowledged that
some of the students’ demands are legitimate but has condemned
“urban violence.” It has also accused a leading far-left party, France Unbowed,
of stoking the demonstrations, a contention that the party has
rejected.
Image
An
anarchist symbol sprayed inside Marseille’s city hall.Credit...Thibaud
Moritz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Image
Police
officers scuffling with a demonstrator during unrest in
Marseille.Credit...Thibaud Moritz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
On
Saturday, as images of rioters surging into buildings and setting cars on fire
played on loop on French news channels, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu
condemned the violence, saying
on X that it was sparked by “ultraleft groups” who “clearly want to use
these acts of violence as a “warm-up” before the presidential election.”
He lauded
the police, saying they had “faced violence of extreme intensity to protect our
fellow citizens.” He added: “We will not be intimidated. No one will impose
their political agenda through violence.”
The
leader of France Unbowed, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, replied by posting photos of
peaceful protests from around the country and blamed the government for giving
orders to “relentlessly” direct tear gas at protesters in Paris. “The
confrontation seems to be the goal of this ‘maintaining order’ strategy,” he wrote
on social media.
The
interior minister, Mr. Nuñez, said that by late afternoon the police were no
longer confronting ultraleft groups. He said that they were instead facing off
against “opportunistic delinquents” who were looting stores in many cities
across the country.
In Paris,
the looting and damage went on long after nightfall. Emmanuel Grégoire, the
city’s mayor, said the cost of the damage, once it was finally tabulated, would
be “immense” as “entire streets have been methodically ravaged” along with
public squares and many monuments.
Throughout
the day, the rioters targeted many symbols of the state.
Image
A man
watching unrest in a Parisian street from his apartment
window.Credit...Thibault Camus/Associated Press
Image
Firefighters
working to extinguish a burning car during a demonstration in
Paris.Credit...Kiran Ridley/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
In
Bordeaux, the official residence of the prefect — the region’s top civil
servant — was damaged. In Marseille, a municipal police station was damaged,
along with the city hall. Rioters also set fire
to the city hall in Limoges, a town in central France renowned for its
porcelain; verified video showed the bell tower collapsing at night in flames.
Others attacked the city hall in the northern city of Lille, breaking its door
and many windows.
Video
Verified
social media footage showed the moment a bell tower collapsed on Saturday as
fire engulfed the city hall in Limoges, France.CreditCredit...Lucas Destrem,
via Reuters
“These
acts are particularly shocking,” said Charlotte Brun, a vice-mayor of Lille, on
French television. “It’s the common house of all the citizens. To attack public
services while we are thousands in on the road, with message against the high
cost of living — it conflicts with the main message of today.”
Still,
many marches across the country ended peacefully.
“We sang,
we saw people dance, funny signs, no rioters,” said Solène Millon, 35, a
photographer chatting with friends at the end of the march in Paris. “The mood
was great. What we see on TV, with people breaking things, is a minority.”
Image
Protesters
rallied in Paris on Saturday.Credit...Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt/Agence
France-Presse — Getty Images
Image
A
demonstrator holding a cross standing by a gas pump and with a burning car and
more protesters behind them in Paris.Credit...Kiran Ridley/Agence France-Presse
— Getty Images
Estelle
Grandidier, a nonprofit worker who joined the march to protest degrading public
services in France, agreed. She called the movement a “convergence of
struggles.” And she, like many in the country, wondered what would come next.
“There
are no clear guidelines. Everyone comes with their own demands,” said Ms.
Grandidier, 41. “So the question is, ‘What is the next step?’”
Ségolène
Le Stradic contributed reporting.
Catherine Porter is an
international reporter for The Times, covering France. She is based in Paris.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário