PARIS — Protesters and police are clashing in Paris, with tear gas fired and projectiles thrown, at the tail-end of demonstrations in the capital and elsewhere that the French government says have drawn 410,000 demonstrators nationwide.
Paris saw the largest protest on Saturday, with the interior ministry estimating that 110,000 took part in a march on the city’s southeastern edge that started peacefully but is ending with violence.
The protesters were marching 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.
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.
Trade unions led the procession, followed by protesters in raincoats carrying flags and handmade placards.
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.
What began last month as a protest over staff shortages at one high school southeast of Paris has spread nationwide, drawing students demanding better schools and workers seeking higher wages and pensions.
In Paris, Bénédicte Pittion, a 46-year-old teacher, marched through steady rain with her 16-year-old daughter, Garance, a high school student. Both had supported the movement from the start, but this was their first protest together.
“The young people who have been demonstrating have not been heard, and as a parent and as a teacher, I stand with them,” Pittion said.
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.
In Paris, gendarmes stood guard Saturday beneath the Arc de Triomphe and 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.
Adamson and Leicester write for the Associated Press. AP writers Tom Nouvian, Samuel Petrequin and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.
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