Macron’s Union Rule Tested as 980 French Protesters Detained

Police detained 980 people across France on Saturday after daytime marches turned into evening confrontations in several cities. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced the figure late in the day, noting that the count would likely increase. Two individuals suffered serious injuries during the unrest, one in Toulouse and the other in Clermont-Ferrand.

The demonstrations focused on the cost of living and deteriorating school conditions. The interior ministry estimated that 410,000 participants took to the streets, while trade unions claimed the number reached approximately 800,000. Authorities deployed 70,000 police officers and imposed movement restrictions to prevent a repeat of the chaos seen the previous weekend, when looting and arson caused hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

President Emmanuel Macron issued a decree earlier in the week limiting public demonstrations to those organized by recognized trade unions. This rule aimed to control the crowd size and organization following the disorder of the prior Saturday, which resulted in over 2,500 arrests and left 1,000 officers injured. Fast-track court hearings have already jailed hundreds of individuals for vandalism and arson.

In Paris, trouble erupted as a march from Porte d'Italie toward Porte de Vincennes concluded. Police used an elite unit typically reserved for counter-terrorism operations to manage the crowd. Protesters constructed barricades and threw projectiles, while officers charged with batons at masked youths smashing windows at a car dealership. Nuñez stated that several thousand radical activists gathered at the rear of the march, including about 500 identified rioters.

Clashes also occurred in Marseille, where protesters set fire to barricades and blocked streets with metal sheets. In Lyon, police deployed tear gas to disperse a group of roughly 150 students who had gathered in an area declared off-limits by local officials. One protester described the scene as having limited visibility due to the smoke.

Protesters expressed frustration with the government's handling of economic pressures. A 26-year-old woman in Paris said the population was suffering greatly, while two masked teenagers argued their generation felt abandoned. One teenager acknowledged that looting was not ideal but attributed it to poverty and police violence. In Orléans, a separate group of 13,000 people rallied peacefully against the National Rally party.

The unrest extended to other European capitals. Riot police fired tear gas at demonstrators in Tirana, Albania, and clashes were reported in Brussels. In Milan, hundreds of soldiers and police prevented protesters from gathering to avoid a repeat of the previous week's violence. Presidential elections are scheduled for six months from now, and leading candidates have already begun blaming Macron and his ministers for the instability.