PARIS: Police and protesters clashed in Paris and other French cities on Saturday, with smoke from fires and tear gas billowing over demonstrations nationwide against high prices ahead of elections to replace President Emmanuel Macron.
Masked youths set a tourism office in Lyon ablaze, as riot squads resorted to tear gas and water cannon to disperse hundreds of people confronting them.
In Marseille, France's second-largest city, protesters broke into the town hall, overturning a bust and smashing furniture before being forced out by police, AFP journalists saw. The mayor called for police reinforcements.
In the northern city of Lille, protesters smashed their way into the mayor's office and vandalised the premises before leaving.
In Paris, tens of thousands marched across the east and north of the city, some shouting "Everyone hates the police" and "Macron, resign".
"For years we've had climate, economy and equality problems but the government is not doing anything about it," said Agnes, a 50-year-old actor who did not give her second name, as she marched.
High school student Kamil Alahyan, 18, said he was protesting "for so many reasons – the elections coming up in 2027, politicians who lie, the ultra-rich who've been taking more and more wealth over the past 10 years".
Yellow Vest movement
The windows of the offices of French broadcasters CNews and Europe 1 in western Paris were broken by protesters, and AFP journalists saw several parked cars torched.
Police in the capital fired water cannon and tear gas when hundreds of protesters wearing face masks, some setting off fireworks, confronted them at several locations, AFP reporters saw. More than 130 people were arrested in the capital, police said.
The country's Yellow Vest movement, which staged street protests against Macron's government eight years ago over planned fuel tax hikes, had called for the "yellow and youth" demonstrations.
More than 600 demonstrations were planned across France, according to a website set up by organisers.
In Paris, authorities banned protests around government buildings, the Champs-Elysees shopping avenue and train stations.
Many demonstrators complained about inflation, which had soared above three per cent amid the war in the Middle East.
Others criticised perceived police brutality during student protests that have gripped France over the past four weeks.
The combined unrest from both protest movements has created a febrile climate as the country heads towards presidential elections in six months' time.
Le Pen blames 'rioters'
Opposition politicians vying to succeed Macron have seized on the protests.
Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who has sided with the police, said on X: "Looting, pillaging, attacking police – rioters have once again sullied the October 17 demonstrations over the cost of living."
She claimed that the protesters' demands had been "hijacked by the far left".
[[nid:1557702]]
Her far-left rival Jean-Luc Melenchon, for his part, insisted that "everything is passing off peacefully" in most of the nationwide demonstrations, while accusing television news of "flooding us with images of violence in dozens of cities".
Macron on Friday urged "respect for people and property".
Several protesters sought to draw parallels with the French Revolution of 1789.
"It's the Revolution – we're taking the Bastille!" some shouted in Marseille during the forced entry into the mayor's offices.
In the western city of La Rochelle, marchers streamed behind a placard reading: "Revolution or death."
In the southern city of Montpellier, a giant blue sign reading "The people will win" was unfurled above a central square.
"The government is trembling and it's right to tremble because when the French people are angry, they never let up," Ryad Rani, head of the LSU high school student representative body, told journalists in Paris.
'Suffocating' from inflation
The soaring cost of living has become a major concern for the French, worrying around 45 per cent of them, according to a survey of 2,000 people published earlier this month.
"At the end of the month, I have nothing left. Prices are going up but wages aren't," said Franck, a civil servant in his forties who would not give his surname, as he demonstrated in the central town of Gueret with around 300 people, a quarter of them high school students.
"We can't take it anymore, we're suffocating," he added.
Purchasing power in France has dwindled since 2024, while fuel prices have soared since the start of the US-Iran war earlier this year.
The eurozone's second-largest economy is struggling to rein in its public debt, which is projected to exceed 120 per cent of GDP next year — double the European Union limit of 60 per cent.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd