France’s protest movement is showing little sign of easing, nearly two months after high school students first walked out over crumbling classrooms.
On Saturday, 146,000 people rallied across the country, including 46,000 in Paris, according to the Ministry of the Interior, while unions put the figures at 250,000 and 75,000.
Turnout was down from previous weeks, but police used tear gas and batons on protesters in Paris and fired tear gas canisters at hundreds of people blocking a road in central Lyon, France’s third-largest city. About 70,000 security personnel were deployed, days after an estimated 575,000 people joined a union-organised rally.
The protests have expanded to cover a range of issues, from high fuel prices to wages and social housing, and in some cases, the demonstrations have been marred by looting and violence. Police have been accused of using excessive force, with officers using barricades, tear gas and batons against protesters.
Al Jazeera maps where demonstrations, including riots, have taken place across Europe.
Demonstrations began in France
An analysis of data from Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) found that between September 15 and October 30, more than 1,200 protests and riots of 100 or more people took place across France over education, public services and the cost of living.
The movement began in mid-September in high schools, where students complained of overcrowded classrooms, a lack of teachers and crumbling buildings. It soon broadened into protests against the rising cost of living, drawing in trade unions and the “yellow vests” movement, with rioting and looting on the sidelines.
On October 17 alone, more than 500,000 people protested nationwide, according to government estimates.
ACLED CEO Clionadh Raleigh said on October 19 that ACLED had recorded an average of 20.5 demonstrations a day in France over the past five years. “During the current protest cycle, that has jumped to almost 66 a day, more than three times the usual rate,” she said.
Protest cycles typically last about 20 days, or 36 for major movements, Raleigh said. By ACLED’s count, this one had reached 45 days and was still going.
“But the most striking difference is the level of confrontation,” she said. “Almost a quarter of events, 24.2 percent, have been classified as riots, compared to a median of just 1.9 percent in previous cycles. Only the unrest following the death of Nahel Merzouk in 2023 recorded a higher proportion.”
The police response has also drawn criticism. On October 28, four United Nations experts mandated by the Human Rights Council expressed alarm at the “excessive use of force” by French authorities in dispersing the student protests.
“The scale of the arrests and detention, affecting several thousand people, mainly minors, appears disproportionate and deters demonstrators from exercising their freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly,” they said in a statement.
In the northern city of Lille, a teenager lost a hand when a grenade exploded as school protesters clashed with police.
Protests across Europe
France is not protesting alone. Since mid-September, demonstrations over rising living costs, low wages and a lack of public services have broken out in 30 other European countries, from Portugal to Poland.
Between September 15 and October 30, more than 1,700 protests and riots of 100 or more people took place across Europe, according to an analysis of ACLED data.
Although protests in other countries did not reach the same scale as the rallies in France, they may be a sign of discontent spilling over, Alberto Alemanno, professor of European Union law and policy at HEC Paris Business School, told Al Jazeera last month.
“France is the epicentre of this movement … and there are signs now that this is spreading beyond France,” Alemanno said.
Which country has had the most protests?
France has led the demonstrations, but protests have also broken out across Europe at the same time, driven by a common thread of underfunded education, rising living costs and unaffordable housing.
According to an analysis of ACLED data, France saw more than 1,200 protests and riots between September 15 and October 30, followed by Spain (173), Italy (160), Germany (70) and Portugal (33).
In Spain, tens of thousands of people rallied in early October after parliament rejected two emergency housing decrees on October 2, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority government.
In Italy, demonstrations over the cost-of-living crisis and unaffordable housing have led to clashes with police.
In Portugal, tens of thousands of protesters marched against the cost-of-living crisis, low wages and an inability to access housing in major cities.
