France’s Interior Ministry said Saturday that about 410,000 people took part in demonstrations across the country, including about 110,000 in Paris. Labor unions gave a figure twice as high: 800,000 nationwide, including 250,000 in the capital.
The Paris march covered a route of several kilometers from the area around the Porte d’Italie gate to the Porte de Vincennes metro station. The rally was peaceful, but at the final point more than 500 vandals attacked police forces, and tear gas and water cannons were used there, police said. Clashes broke out between marchers and officers.
In the evening, people were still at Porte de Vincennes despite persistent rain. Groups of aggressive demonstrators, known as “black blocs,” threw stones at police officers and tried to put up barricades.
In Marseille, Mayor Benoit Payan said after 6 p.m. that the demonstration had passed peacefully and that “millions of Marseille residents were able to demonstrate peacefully.” He added that the number of police officers on Saturday was appropriate for the situation. “We don’t want to see what we saw last week again,” Payan stressed, referring to the riots that broke out during the demonstration on Oct. 17.
In Nice, in southern France, clashes broke out between demonstrators and far-right supporters. Three people were injured. The prefecture said 11 people were detained.
In Limoges, where the city hall was set on fire during riots a week earlier, about 4,000 people gathered despite a ban, many of them young people.
Demonstrations were also held in Lyon, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Rennes and Strasbourg. In Strasbourg, tensions also flared between groups of young people and police, who used tear gas.
From Paris, Anna Wróbel (PAP)
