French authorities said that hundreds of thousands of people once again participated in protests across France on Saturday (October 24). There were clashes in some areas and more than 1,300 people were arrested.
After a day of largely peaceful demonstrations, police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse demonstrators in several cities, including Paris. In Marseille, roadblocks were set on fire; in Bordeaux, wooden fences outside shops were torn down.
However, compared with last weekend, authorities have so far avoided rioting and looting on the same scale. Last week's riots caused one of the worst scenes of social disorder in France's modern history.
The French Interior Ministry said that about 410,000 people participated in demonstrations across the country on Saturday; trade unions estimated that the number was about 800,000.
About 70,000 police officers have been deployed across the country and authorities have implemented restrictions in many cities to prevent the latest round of demonstrations over rising living costs and deteriorating school conditions from spiraling out of control like last weekend. The police force was insufficient at the time, hundreds of shops were looted and many buildings were burned.
The interior ministry said a total of 53 police officers were injured across the country on Saturday.
French President Emmanuel Macron ordered earlier this week that only demonstrations organized by recognized trade unions would be allowed to take place.
Over the past few days, hundreds of people have been jailed after fast-track trials on suspicion of vandalism, arson and looting.
Clashes broke out between demonstrators and riot police at the end of Saturday's peaceful march from the Porte d'Italie to the Porte de Vincennes in Paris.
The police's deployment operations that day included the deployment of an elite unit usually responsible for combating organized crime and counter-terrorism.
It could be seen at the scene that some demonstrators erected temporary roadblocks and threw debris at the police; the police used batons to disperse a group of masked youths who were smashing the glass windows of a car dealer's showroom.
According to Agence France-Presse, French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said that "thousands of radical activists gathered behind the march, and about 500 of them have been identified as participants in the riots."
The interior ministry said a total of 142 people were detained in the capital on Saturday, more than half the number arrested on the same day last week.
In the southern port city of Marseille, trash cans were set on fire and streets were blocked off with metal panels. Law enforcement vehicles were filmed driving through burning roadblocks in France's second-largest city.
Meanwhile, in the southern city of Bordeaux, masked demonstrators wearing dark clothing tore down wooden boards from buildings to build street barricades.
In Lyon, the third largest city, police fired tear gas to disperse crowds. The group was reported to have gathered in an off-limits area designated by the local provincial government office.
A demonstrator in Lyon said: "There were about 150 of us, mostly middle school and university students (demonstrating there). The tear gas came almost immediately afterwards. Almost nothing could be seen on the street."
French Interior Minister Nunez said two people were "seriously injured" during the demonstrations, one in the southwestern city of Toulouse and the other in the central French city of Clermont-Ferrand.
He added that the number of arrests may rise.
According to French news station Franceinfo, citing medical staff treating the injured, a 20-year-old demonstrator in Toulouse had several fingers on one of his hands blown off when an explosive exploded nearby.
The riots continued into the early hours of Sunday morning. Authorities in the Mouth-Rhône department, where Marseille is located, said seven businesses had been "looted or vandalized."
Zélie, a 26-year-old woman who participated in a peaceful demonstration in Paris earlier, told the BBC that people took to the streets because they were really "very frustrated" and "suffered a lot" since Macron came to power.
"They (the authorities) silenced us," said the 26-year-old. "They took our money, taxed us a lot and we couldn't speak out. Today we are taking to the streets because this has gone on for too long and it has gone too far."
Two teenage demonstrators, who wore face masks and spoke on condition of anonymity, also said their generation felt hopeless and felt abandoned by the government.
One of them said of last Saturday's riots: "I think the looting is really bad... but it's because of poverty and police brutality."
He added that the demonstrations would not end "until our demands are answered." "We really hope that France will change."
At the same time, in Orleans, a city in north-central France, about 13,000 people participated in a rally against the far-right National Rally party, and the event was peaceful.
The recent unrest comes amid growing polarization in French politics. France is bracing for what could be its most divisive election in a generation.
Macron will step down next spring. Opinion polls show that French voters may ultimately have to choose between Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the far-right National Rally, and the candidate of the radical left-wing party Incorrigible France.
Leading figures from both parties blamed Macron for the unrest. However, right-wing politicians also sharply criticized those involved in the riots, while left-wing leaders supported the demonstrations organized by the unions.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the candidate of "Unyielding France", said that the French media did not report on the peaceful demonstration, and accused the police of "deliberately creating chaos", which resulted in the injury of two people.
Large-scale demonstrations also broke out in several other European cities on Saturday, with similar causes to the protests in France.
In Barcelona, Spain, a student demonstration turned into what local authorities described as "unprovoked violence" and more than 120 people were arrested.
In the northern Italian city of Milan, the authorities mobilized hundreds of soldiers to cooperate with the police in carrying out large-scale security operations and successfully prevented demonstrators from gathering.
Later, French authorities said they had been forced to implement night curfews in Paris and other cities.
