France faces another major day of protest on Saturday, as hundreds of demonstrations and other actions take place across the country.
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Unions and citizens calling themselves “yellow vests” are protesting the cost of living crisis and rising fuel prices, and large numbers of students are also expected to join them.
Authorities are on high alert amid concerns about possible clashes and public unrest.
In Marseille, in the south of France, demonstrators had already set fire to trash cans and electric scooters on Saturday morning, prompting the intervention of riot police.
Meanwhile, stores across the country have closed their storefronts to prevent possible looting or vandalism.
According to a source close to the French Interior Ministry, 500 actions are expected across the country on Saturday, as well as around 90 demonstrations, as authorities prepare for possible violence in Paris and other major cities.
The protests follow four weeks of student demonstrations over a range of issues, including teacher absences, overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated facilities.
Most of the student protests have been peaceful, but there have been clashes involving rioters and widespread criticism of alleged police brutality and violence.
The source told Euronews that the far-left movement could seek to provoke confrontations with law enforcement and attempt to breach security perimeters along protest routes. They also warned that blockages of key transport routes and critical infrastructure “will not be tolerated”.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that while the right to demonstrate “is fully respected,” it “must be accompanied by respect for people and property.”
“This is why I call for calm and respect: these rights must be preserved,” he said.
Increasing scrutiny of police actions
French law enforcement agencies have come under increased scrutiny in recent weeks, amid several allegations of police violence.
In one case, a 15-year-old schoolboy reportedly lost an eye after being hit by a police rubber bullet. In another incident, a 14-year-old boy reportedly lost his hand after picking up a police stun grenade. The circumstances surrounding both cases are still under investigation.
Following this latest affair, France suspended the use of certain types of stun grenades.
Yet in an interview Friday, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the use of stun grenades would be authorized on October 17 if “serious urban violence” occurred on the sidelines of protests, warning that stun grenades were “never used when everything is going well.”
Nuñez told the French Senate on Tuesday that 36 investigations into allegations of police violence during student protests had been opened. He said four of the cases involved mutilating injuries and six involved serious injuries, while the others related to reported allegations of beatings, insults and sexual violence.
A man who flew into Paris from the United States on Friday told Euronews he was “supportive” of the peaceful protests.
“I hope no one gets hurt and people’s voices are heard,” he said.
A taxi driver in the capital described the situation as “very delicate”.
“People have the right to protest, but peacefully,” he said, adding that “those responsible must find solutions.”
Yellow vest movement
There has been speculation that the October 17 protest could mark the return of the popular yellow vest movement, which emerged in 2018 in response to a government plan to increase taxes on fuel and diesel.
For months, yellow vest protesters have gathered every weekend to block roundabouts, highways and fuel depots across the country, also including tense clashes with police.
It comes as the French government also grapples with a major public debt crisis as it attempts to push a budget containing austerity measures through a hung parliament.
A police union files a complaint against the State for “endangering the lives of others”
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said Thursday that 937 police officers and gendarmes had been injured since the protests began. It also reported injuries among 248 students and 149 teaching staff, which it said was the highest number of injuries ever recorded by the French education ministry.
Lecornu warned that the “high school students’ movement” was transforming into a “wave of urban violence”.
Furthermore, the Alliance Police Nationale, one of the largest French police unions, announced Tuesday in a press release that it would file a complaint against the State “for endangering the lives of others”.
The union denounced what it called “conflicting orders” given to police officers, who were “exposed to violence and left at the mercy of public hostility” during the high school protests.
“After the president’s (French President Emmanuel Macron) expressions of empathy towards the rioters and emphasis on dialogue, we are now faced with vague instructions, contradictory orders and superficial public statements!”
“The gap between Laurent Nuñez’s public statements and the verbal instructions transmitted by the chain of command has become unbearable,” the union said.
The far-left France Unbowed party has been accused by the government and political opponents of encouraging violence and stoking unrest through inflammatory language.
In a speech on September 30, party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon urged his supporters to “oppose police brutality,” adding that “there will be neither forgetting nor forgiveness for anyone.”
He then qualified his remarks by stating that he supported peaceful methods of protest.
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