Unrest flared across France on Saturday amid demonstrations against rising living and fuel costs that built on weeks of high school protests, heightening a sense of fiscal and social crisis in the country.
More than half a million people joined 110 marches throughout the country, according to the interior ministry, making it the biggest day of protest since unrest began to surge nationally roughly a month ago. One of France’s main unions, the C.G.T., estimated a higher number of 800,000 protesters.
The protests marked a convergence between a student-focused movement that has spurred demonstrations out of hundreds of schools, and a broader social movement that appeals to French citizens of different ages.
In many places, the protests were overtaken by violent confrontations between rioters and police officers, including in Marseille, France’s second-largest city, where people briefly broke into the city hall and knocked over a bust of Marianne, a symbol of the French Republic, before the police cleared them out. By nightfall, roughly 400 people, most of them adults, had been arrested across the country, according to the interior minister, Laurent Nuñez.
A tourism office in Lyon was also broken into and set on fire by rioters, many of them dressed in black clothes, masks and goggles. In Paris, where more than 100,000 people marched peacefully in the streets, a few hundred rioters also faced off against riot police, mostly in the Place de la République, a central square, according to the police. Cars were burned and storefronts smashed, the police said.
Since the student protests began last month, highlighting poor conditions in French schools, hundreds of people have been injured amid escalating clashes with riot police. Many of those injured have been young people, including a 15-year-old whose left hand was blown off by a stun grenade, and thousands have been arrested, most of them minors, law enforcement officials said.
On Saturday, that youth-led movement evolved into a wider display of anger at the government of President Emmanuel Macron, who leaves office next year after a decade in power that has come to be defined by political crisis and economic stagnation.
The protests came as the government tries to pass a belt-tightening budget and as France approaches presidential elections in 2027. The French government has acknowledged that some of the students’ demands are legitimate but has condemned “urban violence.” It has also accused a leading far-left party, France Unbowed, of stoking the demonstrations, an accusation that the party has rejected.
On Saturday, as images of rioters surging into buildings and setting cars on fire played on loop on French news channels, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu condemned the violence, saying on X that it was sparked by “ultraleft groups” who “clearly want to use these acts of violence as a “warm-up” before the presidential election.”
He lauded the police, saying they had “faced violence of extreme intensity to protect our fellow citizens.” He added, “We will not be intimidated. No one will impose their political agenda through violence.”
The leader of France Unbowed, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, replied by posting photos of peaceful protests from around the country and blamed the government for giving orders to “relentlessly” direct tear gas at protesters in Paris. “The confrontation seems to be the goal of this ‘maintaining order’ strategy,” he wrote on social media.
The interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said that by late afternoon the police were no longer confronting ultraleft groups. He said that they were instead facing off against “opportunistic delinquents” who were looting stores.
Throughout the day, the rioters targeted many symbols of the state.
In Bordeaux, the official residence of the prefect — the region’s top civil servant — was damaged. In Marseille, a municipal police station was damaged, along with the city hall. Rioters also set fire to the city hall in Limoges, a town in central France renowned for its porcelain, and attacked the city hall in the northern city of Lille, breaking its door and many windows.
“These acts are particularly shocking,” said Charlotte Brun, a vice-mayor of Lille, on French television. “It’s the common house of all the citizens. To attack public services while we are thousands in on the road, with message against the high cost of living. It conflicts with the main message of today.”
Still, many marches across the country ended peacefully.
“We sang, we saw people dance, funny signs, no rioters,” said Solène Millon, 35, a photographer chatting with friends at the end of the march in Paris. “The mood was great. What we see on TV, with people breaking things, is a minority.”
Estelle Grandidier, a nonprofit worker who joined the march to protest degrading public services in France, agreed. She called the movement a “convergence of struggles.” And she, like many in the country, wondered what would come next.
“There are no clear guidelines. Everyone comes with their own demands,” said Ms. Grandidier, 41. “So the question is, ‘What is the next step?’”
Ségolène Le Stradic contributed reporting.
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