Police in France intervened with demonstrators with pepper gas

Demonstrations were held in various cities in France at the call of workers' and students' unions, as well as the Yellow Vests. Demonstrators took to the streets against the high cost of living and demanded that the government allocate more budget for education and that children be protected against all kinds of violence. Demonstrators also demanded that the draft law providing self-defense "armor" for the use of weapons by security forces in France be abandoned.

Tension increased between police and demonstrators in the cities of Paris, Nantes and Lyon. Demonstrators gathered in Republic Square in Paris at 13:00 local time and read France's national anthem, La Marseillaise.

Demonstrators carrying signs saying "(French President Emmanuel) Macron, you will fall like your guards", "For a tooth" and "Less tear gas, more philosophy" marched to the National Square. Demonstrators chanted slogans: "Money for universities and high schools, not for the police or army" and "Macron and his police are fighting us, but we are determined to blockade the country." On the streets along the route of the demonstration, where a law enforcement helicopter patrolled the air, shopkeepers covered their shop windows with wooden boards. In Paris, police intervened with batons against demonstrators near the end point of the demonstration. In Millet Square, the police used pepper gas against the demonstrators who threw different objects, including bottles, at them.

According to news in the national press, law enforcement officers intervened with pepper gas against demonstrators in the cities of Lyon, Nantes, Rouen and Bordeaux. As tension increased between some demonstrators and the police in the city of Lyon, some garbage bins were set on fire. A police officer batoned one of the demonstrators who came to calm the tension between a demonstrator and another police officer. While there was a fight between demonstrators and police in Rouen, demonstrators threw different objects at the police in Bordeaux. In the city of Nantes, the police tried to disperse the demonstrators who took to the streets despite the ban, and 9 people were detained as part of the unauthorized demonstration. 70 thousand police officers and gendarmes were assigned to the demonstrations across France. According to the data of the French Ministry of Internal Affairs, 106 thousand people participated in the demonstrations across the country and 121 people have been detained so far. Unions announced that 200 thousand people participated in the demonstrations.