Half a million protesters sweep France in major show of youth unrest

By Joseph Ataman, Catherine Nicholls, Sana Noor Haq, CNN

(CNN) — Clouds of tear gas fired by police filled the streets of Paris on Saturday, as anti-government protests stretched beyond the French capital.

Some 550,000 protesters hit the streets across France, including 110,000 in Paris, interior minister Laurent Nunez said. Organizers estimated even higher turnout. Protests also took place in Rennes, Lyon and Marseilles this weekend.

Photos emerged of people climbing atop historical statues and buildings set alight, with protesters in Lille and Marseilles reportedly breaking into government buildings as dusk fell.

“There’s an accumulation of wealth and power that’s completely out of control,” one protester, who gave her name as Pauline, told CNN in Paris on Saturday.

“We’re also here to support the youth. There are victories, but if we look at the bigger picture, it’s not going in the right direction,” the 36-year-old added.

Another demonstrator complained of “less democracy” and a “concentration of power” under President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership. “There are billionaires who control the media,” Louise, 38, told CNN. “We are fighting to change things.”

This weekend’s massive protests follow sweeping student-led rallies that gripped parts of France last month, sparking a broader, multi-coalition movement against crumbling schools, the spiking cost of living, and perceived government inaction. The rallies have become emblematic of long-simmering, intergenerational anger among people who say their calls for social and political change are going unmet by negligent governments.

As night fell in Paris, groups of young people looted and started fires as the protest ended, prompting police to respond with tear gas and baton charges in the narrow streets.

Macron condemned “sowers of chaos” for interfering with peaceful protest, and warned late on Saturday that “those who have broken, attacked (police) prefectures, as well as businesses, looted even our town halls, will be prosecuted and punished.”

“We do not back down in the face of rioters and those who’ve come to attack law enforcement,” said the Paris Police Prefecture – the body that oversees the Paris Police Force, emergency services and various other administrative departments supervising unit – adding that its staffers stood “their ground with courage and professionalism.”

At least 195 people have been detained so far, against the backdrop of mounting criticism over authorities’ forceful clamp down on demonstrators. Earlier in the week, police response to protests had left a 14-year-old boy with a fractured jaw. Another police officer was captured on camera using a headlock on a girl in the northwestern area of Alençon, an action now prohibited by law.

A protester in the city of Saint-Étienne, about 40 miles southwest of Lyon, lost his hand during a march there on Saturday, a police source told CNN affiliate BFMTV. This is the second reported instance of a demonstrator losing their hand in the current wave of student protests.

A student in the northeastern city of Lens lost his hand after reportedly picking up a grenade earlier this month, prompting the temporary suspension of one type of stun grenade by police. That ban, which still allowed police to use several different grenades, has now been rescinded.

Overall, authorities said that the “vast majority of individuals” had demonstrated peacefully on Saturday, according to BFMTV.

Posting on X, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the far-left La France Insoumise Party, emphasized that the majority of demonstrators on Sunday had made their point peacefully. “While news channels are flooded with images of violence in dozens of cities, everything is unfolding peacefully with tens of thousands of people calmly mobilized. Two worlds, two realities.”

Youth activists led solidarity protests in Belgium, Albania and Italy on Saturday as well.

Earlier this fall, high school students in France organized scattered protests demanding reduced class sizes, increased spending on teachers, investments in infrastructure designed to withstand the climate crisis and end to police violence against young people.

In the past decade and a half, a rise in fertility coupled with funding cuts has led to more students, but fewer teachers in classrooms. The French Education Minister Edouard Geffray has met with student protesters multiple times in recent weeks, although an agreement is yet to be made.

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CNN’s Eline Baudier Kim contributed reporting.