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PARIS (AP) — Tens of thousands of students and workers marched in Paris and other French cities Saturday over school funding and soaring living costs, putting President Emmanuel Macron under pressure to answer demands for better living standards and prevent more violence after protests last weekend degenerated into rioting and looting.
Police used tear gas in Lyon, where the rally had been banned, on Saturday morning. In Clermont-Ferrand, officers used tear gas and stun grenades to push back demonstrators trying to reach the city centre, French media reported.
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In the southwestern city of Toulouse, 26,500 people joined the protests, according to local authorities.
The unrest is shaking 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.
Authorities had confined the Paris march to the city’s southeastern edge, away from the centre.
An Associated Press journalist saw tens of thousands of people marching from Porte d’Italie early in the afternoon, but it appeared to be a smaller crowd than a week earlier. 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.
France’s interior minister said there were 35,000 demonstrators nationwide by 1 p.m., compared with 60,000 at the same time a week earlier.
Up to 70,000 officers would be deployed nationwide, backed by helicopters, armoured vehicles and water cannons, he said.
People sitting in a pub watch demonstrators during a protest on the sidelines of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) congress in Orleans, France, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)
A small protest became a national movement
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.
Energy prices in France were 21.3 per cent higher in September than a year earlier, helping drive overall inflation to 3.1 per cent, according to the national statistics agency, INSEE.
Macron met high school representatives Friday. They said he had promised to overhaul university admissions, but called for protests to continue until concrete measures are announced.
More than half a million people took to the streets last Saturday. Some 3,000 shops across France were damaged or looted over the weekend.
Gendarmes stood guard beneath the Arc de Triomphe as 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.
Police changed the Paris route Friday. At Bastille, the original starting point, police used a megaphone to tell people to leave or face a 135-euro ($150) fine.
Soumaya Abed, a 58-year-old nurse wearing a red CGT union vest, said she had been joining protests for more than 30 years but had never seen a march start at Porte d’Italie.
“They are using what happened last week as an excuse to quiet protesters,” she said.
“But it won’t stop the movement. It won’t stop students from demanding better conditions in schools.”
A protest march was also scheduled in Marseille, but in cities including Nice and Montpellier, as well as Lyon, rallies were banned by the local authorities.
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.
Trade unions have criticized the bans, calling them violations of freedom of expression, which is protected by the constitution.
Macron, a centrist, has entered the crisis in the final stretches of his term with his popularity at its lowest since he took office in 2017. He has said that the measures are needed to protect city centers, businesses and public buildings.
Nuñez acknowledged Monday that police had lost control in some cities during last weekend’s unrest. He offered to resign, but Macron refused the offer.
Students and workers are angry
Student groups want 250,000 more places in higher education and an end to selection through Parcoursup, the national admissions system.
Their joint 10-point plan also calls for more teachers and repairs to schools and universities.
Public middle and high schools lost 15.4 million teaching hours in the 2024-25 school year because absent teachers were not replaced, according to Education Ministry figures. That amounted to 7.5 per cent of scheduled teaching time.
They are also seeking help with everyday costs: an extra 200 euros (US$224) a month in student grants and a rent freeze in public student housing.
Paris protester Louis Ledoux–Xatard voiced frustration over inequality.
“Looking at countries like the United States, we don’t want to end up like them, where part of the population has everything and the others have nothing,” he said.
“I never imagined that I’d be taking to the streets so much before my 30s.”
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