MORE than 1,00,000 people marched in Paris on Saturday over school funding and soaring living costs, challenging President Emmanuel Macron’s Government as police fired tear gas and water cannons near the end of the protest. Paris police estimated turnout at 1,10,000, with demonstrators mobilising despite restrictions that confined the march to the city’s south-eastern edge, away from the centre. Police used tear gas in several cities, including Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand, and Strasbourg, and water cannons in Nice and Nantes, French media reported. In Marseille, officers fired tear gas during clashes with several dozen people near the march’s endpoint. The Paris prosecutor’s office said 64 people had been arrested in connection with Saturday’s demonstration and 40 placed in police custody. Those arrested included six minors. Most arrests concerned suspected weapons offences or participation in a group preparing violence or property damage, the office said.

 

The unrest is testing Macron’s authority in the final months of his presidency before voters choose his successor in May. The stakes are high: the far-right National Rally has accused his government of failing to protect the public and urged people to channel their anger into votes for them. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez had announced a nationwide deployment of up to 70,000 officers, backed by helicopters, armored vehicles and water cannons. Authorities had confined the Paris march to the city’s south-eastern edge, away from the centre. ‘An Associated Press’ journalist saw tens of thousands of people marching from Porte d’Italie early in the afternoon. Trade unions led the procession, followed by protesters in raincoats carrying flags and handmade placards. After reaching the authorised endpoint at Porte de Vincennes, some demonstrators tried to continue toward Place de la Nation, but police blocked their path, French media reported. Camille Chesnier, 27, said she had been unable to find work despite having an engineering degree and a master’s degree. “There are enormous numbers of people in the same situation as me but who aren’t privileged and who find themselves living on the streets and in squats and, frankly, it’s very tough,” she said. What began last month as a protest over staff shortages at one high school south-east of Paris has spread nationwide, drawing students demanding better schools and workers seeking higher wages and pensions. Public middle and high schools lost 15.4 million teaching hours in the 2024-25 school year because absent teachers were not replaced, according to Education Ministry figures.

 

That amounted to 7.5% of scheduled teaching time. Energy prices in France were 21.3% higher in September than a year earlier, helping drive overall inflation to 3.1%, according to the national statistics agency, INSEE. Macron met high school representatives on Friday. They said he had promised to overhaul university admissions, but called for protests to continue until concrete measures are announced. Organisers from the “yellow vest” movement called for another day of protests Oct. 31 to defend the right to demonstrate. Police changed the Paris route Friday. At Bastille, the original starting point, police used a megaphone to tell people to leave or face a 135-euro ($150) fine. Soumaya Abed, a 58-year-old nurse wearing a red CGT union vest, said she had been joining protests for more than 30 years but had never seen a march start at Porte d’Italie.

 

“They are using what happened last week as an excuse to quiet protesters,” she said. “But it won’t stop the movement. It won’t stop students from demanding better conditions in schools.” In Marseille, police put attendance at 17,000, while the CGT union estimated 100,000. In the south-western city of Toulouse, 26,500 people joined the protests, according to authorities. Authorities had banned rallies in cities including Lyon, Nice and Montpellier. Trade unions have criticised the bans, calling them violations of freedom of expression, which is protected by the constitution. Thousands also marched Saturday in Orleans, south of Paris, in a separate peaceful protest against the far right as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally held a two-day congress in the city. Macron, a centrist, has entered the crisis in the final stretches of his term with his popularity at its lowest since he took office in 2017. He has said that the measures are needed to protect city centres, businesses and public buildings. Nunez acknowledged Monday that police had lost control in some cities during last weekend’s unrest.

 

He offered to resign, but Macron refused the offer. More than half a million people took to the streets last Saturday. Some 3,000 shops across France were damaged or looted over that weekend amid street violence not seen in years. Gendarmes stood guard beneath the Arc de Triomphe as shopkeepers boarded up storefronts across Paris. Near the Saint-Lazare train station Saturday, Akram Ahmed, a 34-year-old contractor, was boarding up an optician’s shop. “I got the call last night,” he said. “The owner seemed desperate. He said I was saving his life.” Major museums, including the Louvre, Orsay Museum, Picasso Museum and Grand Palais - where a major Cezanne exhibit is on display - were shuttered Saturday. Art Basel, one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art fairs, opened to the public Friday, but only for the day, with the threat of unrest prompting organisers to cancel the weekend programme.