PARIS – Fresh clashes broke out in Paris on Sunday a day after France suffered one of its worst days of unrest in years, with protests over high prices leaving one demonstrator dead, thousands arrested and shops across the country looted or damaged.
Nationwide demonstrations erupted into riots on Saturday, with a town hall torched, shops ransacked, and buildings covered in graffiti as violent groups clashed with police in cities across the country.
One protester died after suffering a cardiac arrest during demonstrations in Paris. Police made more than 2 000 arrests across France, while more than 600 officers were injured, the interior minister said.
“It’s like a war zone here,” said Dutch entrepreneur Tije De Boer, who had come to Paris with his children to visit a friend and said the protests forced him to evacuate his hotel at Place de la Republique, a trouble hotspot on Saturday.
Police again fired tear gas towards protesters at Place de la Republique and bikes were set on fire on Sunday afternoon, a sign that tensions had not fully subsided in the capital.
More than half a million people joined marches in scores of cities on Saturday, marking the convergence of a month-long student movement with broader social discontent against rising living costs and declining public services.
President Emmanuel Macron will address the nation at 8 p.m. local time (1800 GMT) on Sunday, his office said.
Saturday’s unrest laid bare the deep anger at Macron, who leaves office in 2027 after a decade in power that has increasingly become defined by social discontent, a weak economy and ballooning debt.
The government has blamed the violence on hard-left and ultra-left groups, as well as criminals who it said instigated the looting.
French far-right leader Jordan Bardella said France had been “humiliated” and called on Macron to step down.
“What we are paying for is decades of laxity, a loss of authority, and the moral, psychological, and material disarmament of our internal security forces,” he said as he was visiting a police station in Paris. (Reuters)
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