According to the French Interior Ministry, about 150 planned actions across the country passed peacefully, but by the end of the day police faced an “extraordinary” level of violence from some participants. In Paris, one officer from the riot police unit was hit by a “Molotov cocktail”, and Laurent Nuñez called it an “attempted murder”; The Guardian writes that earlier in the week he spoke of 70,000 police officers and gendarmes who were to be deployed, including elite units.
The Interior Ministry said that about 320,000 people took part in protests across the country — fewer than the roughly 410,000 a week earlier — including 70,000 in Paris. Among the demonstrators were people in Halloween costumes; the capital’s column moved from Porte de Bagnolet to Porte de Charenton along the city’s southeastern edge, bypassing the center, and by evening dozens of people in masks and black clothing were prying up cobblestones and throwing them at police, as well as hurling an incendiary device.
Police responded with tear gas, stun grenades, and baton blows. The Paris prefecture said that a “core of several hundred rioters” attacked law enforcement officers with thrown objects; in Lyon, protesters also threw objects at police, after which they used tear gas.
In Toulouse, police used water cannons against an unauthorized protest attended by several thousand people, mostly young participants. Late in the evening, the Interior Ministry reported 565 detainees nationwide, and in Paris four police officers and one gendarme were injured.
The protests brought together school students, trade unions, and the “yellow vests”, who oppose rising living costs, growing inequality, and Emmanuel Macron’s policies. After street violence and looting on October 17, student activists announced new blockades of schools and universities on Tuesday and Thursday, and then a joining of the demonstration on November 5, which was called by workers and trade unions.
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