Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators stormed streets across France Saturday, resuming a fresh wave of far-left driven protests that this time were met by a beefed-up security presence.
Government officials estimate 410,000 protestors, while labor unions put the figure closer to 800,000, according to media reports.
Approximately 110,000 protesters gathered in rainy Paris, where clashes erupted at Porte de Vincennes, at the end of a march when some in the crowd threw bottles and rocks at police, who fired tear gas and used water cannons, injuring two.
“Down with the state, the police and the fascists!” demonstrators shouted.
Nearly 1,000 people were arrested during some 800 demonstrations across France, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said, adding “this number will increase.”
Many of the arrested were carrying weapons, including fireworks, sling shots, steel balls and AK-47 rifles and Scorpion submachine guns.
Roughly 70,000 officers and gendarmerie were deployed to avert last weekend’s chaos, the worst unrest in the nation in years.
The cops — most dressed in riot gear and equipped with a cache of smoke grenades — were backed up on land by blue Centaure vehicles, 14.5-ton trucks equipped with ballistic and explosive protection.
The vehicles patrolled some of the larger demonstrations, including directly behind the National Assembly and near the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Fifteen water cannons were deployed to prevent another explosion of mayhem.
“We have to be ultra, ultra responsive,” Interior Minister Laurent Núñez declared, accusing far-left activists and opportunist criminal gangs of abusing the movement to wreak havoc.
Protestors demanded relief from rising living costs, among an ever-expanding array of grievances, with one telling The Post, “We’re here to fight for the rights of everyone … we’re in 2026 and no one can find a job.”
Another man angrily blasted, “We’re forced to work under the table, we’re forced to do dirty s–t to have a bit of cash, to feed our kids — Mr. Macron, do you think that’s normal?”
A Post reporter on the ground in Paris wore riot gear as the demonstration turned violent.
At least 137 people were arrested in City of Love, with authorities seizing the illegal weapons, along with metal projectiles and even a katana sword, according to Nuñez, who warned, “We will not tolerate any violence or any disturbance of public order.”
The Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Picasso Museum and Grand Palais had their doors shuttered Saturday, while businesses boarded up storefronts. The armored vehicles blocked roads leading to sensitive government buildings against another round of destruction.
Security forces barricaded approaches to the Élysée Palace, President Emmanuel Macron’s official residence, while gendarmes guarded the Arc de Triomphe.
Authorities also rerouted the main protest away from central shopping districts, hoping to spare businesses another devastating weekend.
The precautions followed some of France’s worst civil unrest in years.
More than 550,000 people demonstrated last Saturday as rioters torched streets, smashed storefronts of luxury shops, such as Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Dior and Hermés, along with privately-owned grocery and electronics’ stores and chain eateries like McDonald’s.
Approximately 3,000 shops were damaged or looted, some 2,700 people were arrested and retailers suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
Last week, vandals toppled a bust of Marianne, France’s national symbol, smashed television sets and spray-painted an anarchist emblem on a wall inside Marseille’s municipal headquarters.
This Saturday’s demonstrations showed the fury is far from extinguished.
In Bordeaux, protesters erected street barricades as police responded with tear gas.
In Marseille — where police put attendance at 17,000, while the union estimated 100,000 — barricades lined the streets as protestors launched dangerous mortar fireworks toward police.
Police fired tear gas in Lyon, Lille, Toulouse and Nantes, while stun grenades were used in Cleront-Ferrand.
The unrest also exposed deepening political divisions as Macron approaches the end of his presidency and his popularity is at the lowest since he took office in 2017.
More protests have been planned for the Oct. 31 — and more Saturdays to come.
Far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who joined the Paris march, blamed the government for failing to contain the destruction, adding that the government is “solely responsible,” and accusing officials of having “failed to organize the maintenance of public order.”
He also warned Macron that the demonstrations would not simply disappear.
“He is going to understand that this is going to repeat itself every week,” said Mélenchon, who is on track to challenge far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the spring elections.
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