Around 400 people were arrested in France on Saturday, as violent clashes, fire and looting marred demonstrations against rising living costs and poor conditions in schools.
In Limoges, the City Hall was set on fire and destroyed, with the flames still raging into the evening.
French President Emmanuel Macron said violence has “no place for violence in our Republic”, after weeks of unrest in cities across the country.
The marches drew about 550,000 people across the country, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed, while organisers said the figure was 800,000.
Demonstrators expressed widespread frustration and anger at the government as gasoline, energy and food prices have spiked in recent months.
The CGT, one of France’s major labor unions, backed the protests, calling for “higher wages and pensions, lower prices and the protection of public services that meet people’s needs.”
Nuñez described troublemakers as “extremely violent, radical far-left groups” who, he said, sought confrontations with police and targeted public buildings, including city halls and local government offices. He said those groups have been joined by offenders willing to loot shops. Most of those arrested are adults, he said.
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu also said the government would not be “intimidated” by violence, and again blamed the unrest on the “far-left” and criminals just months before a presidential election next year.
“To those who clearly want to use this violence as a ‘warm-up’ before the presidential election, I say clearly: We will not let ourselves be intimidated. No one will impose their political agenda through violence,” he wrote in a post on X.
In Paris, police fired tear gas and water cannons to push back people wearing hoods and masks and throwing fireworks, paving stones and other objects at officers in the Place de la République, northeast of the Paris city center.
Many metro stations were closed Saturday at police request, including those around the Champs-Elysées and near the presidential palace, parliament and government offices.
“There is no place for violence in our Republic,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a message on X. “Those who vandalized property, attacked government offices and businesses, and even looted our town halls will be prosecuted and punished.”
“We will stand united against those who sow chaos — and who prevent people from peacefully expressing their demands,” Macron added.
Protesters across France responded to calls on social media to revive the “yellow vest” movement, which emerged in 2018 against social injustice, and many many could be seen wearing the fluorescent vests.
In Lyon, France’s third-largest city where about 20,000 protesters joined the march, a fire broke out inside a tourist office.
In the southern port city of Marseille, some shops and a municipal police station were damaged, while protesters briefly forced their way into the lobby of City Hall.
Nuñez also reported violence by masked groups against local government buildings in Bordeaux, break-in attempts at Lille and Calais city halls and at a police station in Brest. Violence also broke out in Rennes, Toulouse, Montpellier and Grenoble, among other cities.
It comes after weeks of protests from students dissatisfied with conditions in schools across France that have seen thousands of arrests, hundreds of injuries and schools set on fire.