Clashes break out in Paris, other French cities amid fresh protests

PARIS , France (AFP) — Clashes broke out Saturday in Paris and other French cities amid demonstrations held a week after others that degenerated into street violence and prompted a robust security backlash as President Emmanuel Macron seeks to restore order. Police arrested nearly 1,000 people as officers were confronted with "an extremely elevated level of violence" from black-clad "ultra-left" extremists, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said. Riot squads fired tear gas at protesters in the capital as well as in Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Lille, Toulouse, Montpellier and Nantes. Two people were "seriously" injured, Nunez said: one man in Toulouse, who reportedly had fingers blown off, and another person in Clermont-Ferrand. He did not give details of either case. Authorities had deployed 70,000 security forces across the country for the new marches, which were called to protest the cost of living. The violence came a week after rioting that saw public buildings vandalised, hundreds of shops looted and 2,700 people arrested, casting a pall over a country that goes to the polls in six months to choose a successor to President Emmanuel Macron after 10 years. Nunez said Saturday's outcome was more "positive" than a week ago, with more police on the streets acting more rapidly, conducting more pre-demonstration checks and better protecting businesses. There was nevertheless widespread anger at the government over a protest crackdown viewed as repressive and as an assault on the right to protest. Saturday's demonstrations drew between 410,000 and 800,000 people across the country, according to different estimates by authorities and the organising CGT union. The main Paris march had between 110,000 and 250,000 attendees,  according to those sources. Macron's government has ordered police to prevent protesters reaching city centres, where shops are concentrated, and in Paris and some other cities, partial curfews were imposed in certain urban zones. The French president had ordered non-union demonstrations be banned as "illegitimate". In Paris, where many shops had boarded up windows to prevent looting, and the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay museums shut for the day, the main demonstration passed off largely peacefully. The march had been pushed to the capital's southeast rim under a last-minute order by authorities. Afterwards, though, clashes broke out as the crowd was dispersing. Nunez said the confrontations lasted two hours and involved "500 rioters" at the back of the march. AFP journalists saw police charge several times and vigorously use tear gas and batons against some, mostly young, protesters. "The police started moving towards everyone, telling them to get down and back off. They were just taking people down, you know, beating protesters," one demonstrator bleeding from a baton blow to his face, who gave his first name as David, told AFP. "I hear the media talking about repression in Iran and China. And now I see that France is doing the same, if not worse," said Victor Lejendre, a 22-year-old student. He said he was "asking myself a lot of questions about what is going to become of this country", adding that it was "dystopian".