France cost-of-living protests: tear gas in Lille, Marseille town hall vandalised as 32,800 march outside Paris

Police fired tear gas and clashed with protesters in several French cities on Saturday 17 October, as demonstrations over the cost of living, fuel prices and inequality spread across the country, Reuters reported via Business Recorder.

By midday, French authorities had counted 140 protests involving 32,800 people outside Paris. In Lille police and protesters clashed in the streets, and in Marseille the mayor said the town hall had been vandalised and that more police were being sent after talks with the prime minister and interior minister. In Paris, police kept protesters away from the Champs-Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe, which were left off the routes of two authorised marches.

How it started

The movement began last month in high schools in Paris's poorer northern suburbs, over teacher shortages and run-down school buildings. Calls on social media then pulled in veterans of earlier protest movements. Many marchers on Saturday wore high-visibility vests, a deliberate echo of the Yellow Vests, who began in 2018 against diesel taxes and faded after President Emmanuel Macron announced billions of euros in tax cuts.

"Living costs are too high, fuel is too expensive," Lola, a 19-year-old protester in Paris, told Reuters, adding that students were being hurt for asking for more teachers and better classrooms.

Injuries on both sides

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said more than 900 police officers had been injured. A teenager lost a hand after picking up a stun grenade, and France's police watchdog is investigating at least two dozen complaints of police violence. Stun grenades were suspended during the student protests, but Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said they could be used on Saturday. The government has blamed the violence on the "ultra-left"; Macron appealed for calm on Friday.

Why it matters beyond France

The unrest comes as France's borrowing costs sit at their highest in more than two decades and Macron enters the last stretch of his presidency with a fragmented parliament. It also lands in the same week as a fresh oil price spike: Brent touched $110 before a supertanker hit a mine in the Strait of Hormuz.

For readers in Pakistan, the same oil prices feed directly into what you pay at the pump. Petrol was cut by Rs 3.93 to Rs 386.30 a litre from Saturday; follow every change on our petrol price today page.