Developing: Arrests Pass 1,300 as France's Protests Spread Abroad

French police arrested 1,314 people during Saturday's nationwide protests, the Interior Ministry said, up from a provisional count of nearly 1,000 and the second weekend running that marches have ended in clashes. ^[2]

The interior minister had said the first figure was expected to rise. ^[2] It did. By Sunday the ministry was also reporting 53 injured officers, 75 fires and 24 looted shops. It gave no count of injured protesters. ^[2]

The Daily Inference reported on Sunday that hundreds of thousands had marched over living costs and school conditions before clashes erupted in several cities. The new numbers show that the night did not end the story.

A movement that will not stay in the schoolyard

The protests began in high schools more than a month ago, over education funding and staffing. They have since drawn in workers and other groups angry about the cost of living and the state of public services. ^[1][4] That is how a campus grievance becomes a national one: each new group arrives with its own bill.

The size of Saturday's turnout is disputed. The Interior Ministry put it at 410,000. The CGT union, one of France's largest labour federations, said about 800,000. ^[1][3][4] The estimates are nearly a factor of two apart, but either one describes a mass mobilisation.

Most marches were largely calm. Trouble came after them, or at their edges. Police used tear gas and water cannon in several cities. Fires and barricades were reported in Marseille, and police used tear gas in Lyon. In Paris, clashes broke out near the end of the march. ^[1][3][4]

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said several thousand radical activists gathered at the rear of the Paris march, among them about 500 people he described as identified rioters. ^[1] The ministry counted 142 arrests in the capital, which is about 11 percent of the national total. ^[1] The other 1,172 happened elsewhere.

What the number does not say

An arrest count records detentions. It does not record guilt, charges or convictions. ^[2]

Nothing published so far breaks the 1,314 down by suspected offence, age or city, or says how many were released and how many are still in custody. ^[1][2] Whether the people held were seized for violence, for looting, for carrying banned items or as a precaution before trouble began is not known. The ministry has not said.

The ratio is still worth a look. On the ministry's own turnout figure, police made roughly three arrests for every 1,000 marchers. On the union's figure it is about half that. The previous weekend's demonstrations were followed by more than 2,500 arrests, according to the BBC, so Saturday's total is about half of that. ^[1] It is smaller, but it is not small.

Two protesters were seriously injured, Nuñez said, one in Toulouse and one in Clermont-Ferrand. ^[1][2] France 24, citing the Toulouse prefecture and an anonymous street medic, reported that a 20-year-old man there had a serious injury to his right hand. What caused it has not been established. ^[2]

France 24 also reported that the ministry said the rest of Saturday night was calm once the clashes had died down, and that several investigations had been opened. No details of them were given. ^[2]

Beyond the border

Protests or unrest were also reported on Saturday in Barcelona, Tirana and Brussels. ^[1] In Barcelona, local authorities said more than 120 people were arrested after a student protest turned violent. ^[1] In Milan, a large security operation prevented protesters from gathering at all. ^[1]

Those events sit alongside the French ones in the reporting. Nothing so far shows that organisers planned them together or that the grievances are the same. A student protest in Barcelona and the marches across France may share a mood without sharing a plan. Still, the picture of a French problem contained inside French borders is harder to hold when local authorities in Barcelona report more than 120 arrests of their own.

The election hangs over it

France votes for a president in April and May, and Emmanuel Macron will leave office then, having reached the two-term limit. ^[2][4] That timing gives every party a reason to read the streets as a verdict on the government's authority, or on its failure to keep order.

The marches were, in part, a challenge to Macron, and the Paris clashes erupted as they were being staged. ^[4] A lame-duck president facing a movement that began in school corridors and now fills city centres has few easy options. Concessions on school funding would look like a reward for disorder. Holding firm would invite another weekend like the last two.

The movement has now produced two weekends of mass marches, thousands of arrests and injuries on both sides of the police line. Watch three things. The first is whether the ministry publishes a breakdown of the 1,314 and how many face charges. The second is what the investigations opened after Saturday find, including the cause of the Toulouse injury. The third is whether unions and student groups call a third day of action. None has announced one in the reporting so far.