France Arrests Near 1,000 at Weekend Rallies
Police deployed 70,000 officers to prevent a repeat of last week's widespread looting and arson across the country.
By Hassan Ellis ·
French police arrested close to 1,000 people on Saturday, October 24, 2026, as nationwide demonstrations over the cost of living drew 410,000 marchers according to the interior ministry, while unions counted around 800,000. Daytime rallies stayed largely peaceful before clashes erupted in the evening across several cities.
Authorities deployed roughly 70,000 officers and imposed movement restrictions in multiple towns to stop the protests from spiraling into the disorder seen a week earlier, when hundreds of shops were looted and buildings set ablaze. Police used tear gas and water cannon to break up gatherings, including in Paris. In Marseille, crowds burned barricades; in Bordeaux, people pried boards from a storefront. The scale of destruction stayed below the rioting recorded the previous weekend.
Trouble in Paris began after a march that ran from Porte d'Italie to Porte de Vincennes. Police included a unit assigned to organized crime and counter-terrorism work. Some demonstrators stacked makeshift barriers and hurled objects at officers, while police with batons charged masked youths who were shattering a car dealership's windows. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told AFP that "several thousand radical activists gathered at the rear of the march, including around 500 individuals identified as rioters."
President Emmanuel Macron issued a decree earlier in the week limiting marches to those organized by recognized trade unions. Courts have since jailed hundreds of people on fast-track hearings for vandalism, arson and looting. Nuñez said late Saturday that arrests neared 1,000 and would keep climbing, and that two people sustained serious injuries, one in Toulouse and one in Clermont-Ferrand.
In Lyon, police fired tear gas at a crowd assembled in an area the local prefecture had placed off limits. "There were around 150 of us, mostly secondary school and university students," one protester said. "You could barely see anything in the street." In Orléans, about 13,000 people rallied against the National Rally party without incident.
The unrest reached beyond France's borders. Riot police sprayed tear gas at thousands of anti-government demonstrators in Tirana, Albania, and clashes were reported in Brussels. In Milan, hundreds of soldiers and police stopped protesters from assembling after violence the prior week.
Saturday's turnout trailed the roughly 550,000 people who demonstrated last weekend against rising fuel prices and living costs, following weeks of student protests. Those events brought more than 2,500 arrests, damage to over 2,000 shops and businesses, and repair costs the Chambers of Commerce and Industry put at hundreds of millions of euros. Some 1,000 officers were hurt, and a crowd-control grenade reportedly tore off a demonstrator's hand. Presidential elections are six months out.
