About 106,000 people, according to the Ministry of the Interior, compared with the 200,000 indicated by the organizers, have once again taken to the streets of the main French cities this Saturday, on the fifth consecutive day of social protests. The protests, initially sparked in the education sector, have spread to denounce the rising cost of living and police violence.
The figures recorded represent a retreat from last Saturday, when the Ministry of the Interior counted 146,000 demonstrators -- compared with the 250,000 people estimated by the calling organizations --. In general, the day has unfolded relatively calmly, although the authorities have reported 219 arrests up to 18:00 hours and altercations, above all, once the main processions had been dissolved.
In Paris, up to three different calls have been held: one against the bill on the presumption of legitimate use of weapons by security forces, an international march against violence committed against children, and a rally of the Yellow Vests on the occasion of the Fifth Act of the movement against the high cost of living. In total, more than 60 demonstrations have been counted across the country.
The Ministry of the Interior has underscored that "at this time, the situation across the national territory remains calm and under control" and has detailed that, of the 106,000 people mobilized, 24,000 have gathered in the capital. Throughout the day in Paris, 45 people were arrested, ten of them minors, "mainly for hiding their faces, vandalism, and participation in a group", according to police sources cited by the French chain BFMTV. In addition, Interior has reported ten police officers injured.
The spokesperson for the union Los Secundarios, Henry Blunden, has stressed that "I continue to support these mobilizations for the simple reason that (President) Emmanuel Macron has not listened to the demands of young people."
The students, who gave rise to the protests, were received by the authorities in "a social conference that served for nothing," according to Blunden. "Now we need to move on to a new stage of the movement," with more peaceful demonstrations "to make ourselves heard," he has argued.
From Yellow Vests, Benjamin Ball has emphasized that this is “an even busier day than usual” thanks to the involvement of various groups, including climate protest groups. “There’s a whole town that is getting up and telling the government and the billionaires it serves: enough already!”, he said.
For his part, a member of the Interfac Committee Île-de-France for student mobilization, Mathis Aversenq, has argued that “the movement does not lose strength,” since the government “feels compelled, week after week, to make more announcements, which are actually crumbs.” “Those who will give up, those who will run out of strength first, will be those in the government,” he insisted. “We are keeping the mobilization at an extremely high level (...). You’ll see it on Tuesday, with hundreds of thousands of people still on strike and demonstrating,” he added.
The call has also been followed in other major cities such as Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Toulouse, Lyon or Rouen. In several of these cities there have been incidents and the Police has resorted to the use of water cannons and tear gas to disperse some groups.