Mass protests challenge Macron as French police use tear gas and water cannons

PARIS — More than 100,000 people marched in Paris on Saturday over school funding and soaring living costs, challenging President Emmanuel Macron’s government as police fired tear gas and water cannons near the end of the protest.

Paris police estimated turnout at 110,000, with demonstrators mobilizing despite restrictions that confined the march to the city’s southeastern edge, away from the center.

Police used tear gas in several cities, including Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand, and Strasbourg, and water cannons in Nice and Nantes, French media reported. In Marseille, officers fired tear gas during clashes with several dozen people near the march’s endpoint.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said 64 people had been arrested in connection with Saturday’s demonstration and 40 placed in police custody. Those arrested included six minors. Most arrests concerned suspected weapons offenses or participation in a group preparing violence or property damage, the office said.

The unrest is testing Macron’s authority in the final months of his presidency before voters choose his successor in May. The stakes are high: the far-right National Rally has accused his government of failing to protect the public and urged people to channel their anger into votes for them.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez had announced a nationwide deployment of up to 70,000 officers, backed by helicopters, armored vehicles and water cannons.

Authorities had confined the Paris march to the city’s southeastern edge, away from the center. An Associated Press journalist saw tens of thousands of people marching from Porte d’Italie early in the afternoon. Trade unions led the procession, followed by protesters in raincoats carrying flags and handmade placards.

After reaching the authorized endpoint at Porte de Vincennes, some demonstrators tried to continue toward Place de la Nation, but police blocked their path, French media reported.

Camille Chesnier, 27, said she had been unable to find work despite having an engineering degree and a master’s degree.

“There are enormous numbers of people in the same situation as me but who aren’t privileged and who find themselves living on the streets and in squats and, frankly, it’s very tough,” she said.

A small protest became a national movement

What began last month as a protest over staff shortages at one high school southeast of Paris has grown into a national movement. Students demanding better schools and workers seeking higher wages and pensions have brought anger over living standards into the final months of President Emmanuel Macron’s presidency.

Energy prices in France were 21.3% higher in September than a year earlier, helping drive overall inflation to 3.1%, according to the national statistics agency, INSEE.

Macron met high school representatives Friday. They said he had promised to overhaul university admissions, but called for protests to continue until concrete measures are announced.

Some protests have been banned

Police changed the Paris route Friday. At Bastille, the original starting point, police used a megaphone to tell people to leave or face a 135-euro ($150) fine.

Soumaya Abed, a 58-year-old nurse wearing a red CGT union vest, said she had been joining protests for more than 30 years but had never seen a march start at Porte d’Italie.

“They are using what happened last week as an excuse to quiet protesters,” she said. “But it won’t stop the movement. It won’t stop students from demanding better conditions in schools.”

In Marseille, police put attendance at 17,000, while the CGT union estimated 100,000. In the southwestern city of Toulouse, 26,500 people joined the protests, according to authorities. Authorities had banned rallies in cities including Lyon, Nice and Montpellier.

Trade unions have criticized the bans, calling them violations of freedom of expression, which is protected by the constitution.

Thousands also marched Saturday in Orléans, south of Paris, in a separate peaceful protest against the far right as Marine Le Pen’s National Rally held a two-day congress in the city.

Macron, a centrist, has entered the crisis in the final stretches of his term with his popularity at its lowest since he took office in 2017. He has said that the measures are needed to protect city centers, businesses and public buildings.

Nuñez acknowledged Monday that police had lost control in some cities during last weekend’s unrest. He offered to resign, but Macron refused the offer.

Shops board up and museums close

More than half a million people took to the streets last Saturday. Some 3,000 shops across France were damaged or looted over the weekend.

Gendarmes stood guard beneath the Arc de Triomphe as shopkeepers boarded up storefronts across Paris. Near the Saint-Lazare train station Saturday, Akram Ahmed, a 34-year-old contractor, was boarding up an optician’s shop.

“I got the call last night,” he said. “The owner seemed desperate. He said I was saving his life.”

Major museums, including the Louvre, Orsay Museum, Picasso Museum and Grand Palais — where a major Cézanne exhibit is on display — were shuttered Saturday.

Art Basel, one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art fairs, opened to the public Friday, but only for the day, with the threat of unrest prompting organizers to cancel the weekend program.

Students and workers are angry

Student groups want 250,000 more places in higher education and an end to selection through Parcoursup, the national admissions system.

Their joint 10-point plan also calls for more teachers and repairs to schools and universities.

Public middle and high schools lost 15.4 million teaching hours in the 2024-25 school year because absent teachers were not replaced, according to Education Ministry figures. That amounted to 7.5% of scheduled teaching time.

They are also seeking help with everyday costs: an extra 200 euros a month in student grants and a rent freeze in public student housing.

“The money is now concentrated in the hands of very few people,” said Victoria Ambrosini, an art critic and art teacher at Saint-Denis University.