Clashes in Paris and French cities after new mass protests

Paris — PARIS — Hundreds of demonstrations took place across France on Saturday over the rising cost of living, with large deployments of security forces seeking to prevent a repeat of the violence seen the previous weekend. While the marches themselves passed off peacefully in several cities, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said members of what he called "ultra-left" groups threw projectiles and fireworks at police in an attempt to provoke clashes, France 24 reported.

The interior ministry estimated that 410,000 people protested nationwide on Saturday, while the unions put the figure at about 800,000, according to the BBC. More than 1,300 arrests were made across the country, and 53 officers were hurt. After largely peaceful demonstrations, police fired tear gas and water cannon in a number of cities; barricades were set alight in Marseille and boards were ripped from a shop in Bordeaux.

In Paris, the largest march of the day drew tens of thousands and clashes erupted at the end of a route from Porte d'Italie towards Porte de Vincennes. The ministry said 142 people were arrested in the capital, less than half the number arrested on the same day a week earlier. Nuñez said "several thousand radical activists gathered at the rear of the march, including around 500 individuals identified as rioters". In Lyon, police used tear gas to disperse a crowd in an area the local prefecture had declared off-limits; one protester there told reporters the tear gas came "almost immediately".

Nuñez said two people were seriously injured — one in Toulouse, one in Clermont-Ferrand — and warned the national arrest figure would likely rise. Authorities in Bouches-du-Rhône said seven businesses had been "looted or damaged" as unrest continued into Sunday morning. A protester in Paris who gave her name as Zelie told the BBC people were "really frustrated" after years of rising taxes and prices: "Today we are in the streets because it's been too long, it's been too much."

Some 70,000 police officers were deployed, with restrictions imposed in several cities, after last weekend produced what officials described as some of the worst disorder in France's modern history — officers outnumbered, hundreds of businesses looted and buildings torched. President Emmanuel Macron had decreed earlier this week that only demonstrations organised by recognised trade unions would be permitted, and hundreds of people have been jailed for vandalism, arson and looting after fast-track court hearings. Officials said they had so far avoided rioting and looting on that scale this time.

What to watch next: whether the arrest tally climbs as Nuñez predicts, whether further fast-track hearings follow, and whether the unions — whose turnout estimate is double the government's — call another day of action under a decree that now restricts who may legally march.