Violent clashes across France as more groups join student protests

PARIS — Clashes broke out early on Saturday between protesters and police, ahead of nationwide protests in France that are expected to gather several hundred thousand people throughout the country.

Media reported incidents in the nation’s largest cities including Lyon, Marseille and Paris. Clashes have been taking place across the capital, including on Place de la République, a few hours before authorized demonstrations were scheduled to start from Paris’s central square.

A police station was vandalized in Marseille, where a group of “rioters” also entered city hall, Mayor Benoît Payan said. He told BFMTV “damage was objectively fairly limited,” although the act of vandalism was “unacceptable.” The headquarters of right-wing TV channel CNews in Paris was also targeted, authorities said.

More than 160 people had already been arrested over the country at midday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez’s office told reporters.

Students, farmers and members of the Yellow Jacket movement, among others, are slated to take to the streets on Saturday in a “convergence of struggles” to protest raising living costs, sluggish wages and deep disagreements with the government.

The government expects “a fairly large turnout,” Nuñez said on Friday.

Saturday’s demonstrations originated in the student protests that began last month with school blockades and calls for better studying conditions, more teachers and more funding. The movement has since spread nationwide — and become a political issue as the campaign for next year’s presidential election heats up.

The government has struggled to deal with the crisis — which Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu described as “urban violence” — and is hoping the student movement will now fade because of a two-week school holiday that started Friday evening.

“The mobilization is marked by a very strong involvement of the ultra-left movement which is only looking to cause disorder,” Nuñez’s office said Saturday, adding that the minister reiterated his “instructions of utmost firmness” to local prefects and police forces.

The government has defended the law enforcement response to the student protests despite numerous allegations of police brutality, including incidents that left one teenager with a severed hand and another blind in one eye. Nuñez said the use of “stun grenades” was authorized on Saturday, after a temporary ban on their use against students.

While far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon is backing protesters, far-right leader Jordan Bardella pledged support for the police.

This is a developing story. Victor Goury-Laffont contributed reporting.