France’s second weekend of protests was less violent than the first, and that narrow improvement is the most the government can claim from Saturday. On October 17, largely peaceful protests were later marred by widespread looting and vandalism, thousands of businesses damaged or ransacked, and more than 2,000 people taken into police custody. On October 24, the same pattern repeated, but on a smaller scale: nearly 1,000 arrests, rather than more than 2,000, and damage concentrated in fewer places.
The difference, according to Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, was anticipation. Authorities deployed 70,000 police officers and gendarmes on Saturday, 10,000 more than the week before, after conceding they had underestimated the unrest on October 17. Police conducted more than 3,000 checks and made 65 arrests in Paris earlier in the day, before the main demonstration of at least 110,000 people on the capital’s southeastern fringes.
What changed, and what did not
What changed was preparation. What did not change was the shape of the day: a largely peaceful mass march, followed by clashes after dark as high risk groups broke away from the main body. In Paris, riot police fired tear gas and water cannon at around 500 hooded youths after the rally ended. In Marseille, youths set fire to rubbish bins, threw rocks and bottles, and fired mortar fireworks towards officers, while police said several stores, including two jewellery shops, were ransacked.
On October 17, the violence had included a tourist office set ablaze in Lyon, attempted looting and attacks on seats of power and media outlets, and 272 arrests by mid afternoon alone, before the night had even begun. On October 24, clashes were also reported in Lyon, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand, Lille, Rennes, Nantes and Toulouse, but the scale of looting and the custody total were both lower.
Less violent is not peaceful
As Reuters reported, Nunez said the violence was less intense than a week ago, and that the government had learned from underestimating the first weekend. That is a claim about competence, not about resolution.
The underlying grievances, living costs, fuel prices, teacher shortages and public services, have not changed in a week, and neither has the turnout: 410,000 by the official count, nearly double that by the unions’ count. A second weekend that is less violent than the first is still a weekend of national protest ending in arrests, and the comparison with October 17, while favourable to the government, sets a low bar. The real test is not whether the next weekend is less violent than the last, but whether there is a weekend without clashes at all.
