{"id":332161,"date":"2026-10-18T07:14:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T07:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=332161"},"modified":"2026-10-18T07:51:34","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T07:51:34","slug":"more-than-400-arrested-as-police-clash-with-protesters-across-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=332161","title":{"rendered":"More than 400 arrested as police clash with protesters across France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kim Willsher and William Christou \u2013 The Guardian Oct 17, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n

More than 400 people were arrested in France<\/a> on Saturday after protesters supporting high school student grievances clashed with police.<\/p>\n

Police fired teargas in confrontations with protesters, as demonstrations across France were boosted by other groups angry over high prices and the fraying of a social welfare system.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across the country, and tensions erupted on the fringes of the nationwide demonstrations over absent teachers, decrepit school buildings and police violence.<\/p>\n

Late on Saturday, the interior minister, Laurent Nu\u00f1ez, said there had been 400 arrests and most were adults who were not part of the high school protests.<\/p>\n

He said the official demonstration had been hijacked by casseurs \u2013 \u201c<\/em>opportunistic delinquents who had seen a chance to pillage and loot \u2026 we will find them and deal with them firmly\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the state was not planning to declare a state of emergency but added: \u201cI very strongly condemn the violence we have seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Marseille, protesters stormed the town hall, ramming the door with security barriers they removed from the street. They briefly managed to enter the municipal building, where a protester spray-painted an \u201cA\u201d for anarchy on a wall before the police removed them.<\/p>\n

Around Place de la R\u00e9publique in central Paris<\/a>, a peaceful march turned violent, with police firing teargas at black-clad and masked rioters who threw fireworks and paving stones, attacked a bank and looted a sports shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking the Bastille!\u201d one demonstrator yelled.<\/p>\n

Others set wheelie bins on fire and threw firecrackers inside or pushed over glass recycling bins and picked up the bottles inside to use as missiles. A lorry was set on fire and flames spread to a nearby building.<\/p>\n

Along Boulevard Magenta, one of the main south-north axis north of Place de la R\u00e9publique running through a mostly working-class area, dozens of shops were broken into and looted.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"

Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Residents in surrounding streets were forced to close windows and doors as huge clouds of teargas rose to roof level.<\/p>\n

French authorities detained dozens of protesters across the country, with more arrests expected.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s mobilisation followed calls on social media to revive the gilets jaunes<\/a><\/em> (yellow vests) movement, which emerged in 2018 against social injustice.<\/p>\n

The protests began last month at schools \u2060in the poor northern suburbs of Paris<\/a>, where \u2060anger over teacher \u200babsences and shabby facilities quickly morphed into a nationwide movement against inequality, weak public spending and falling standards.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s protests called for teachers and students, labourers, pensioners and farmers to join the protests and widen the movement.<\/p>\n

French authorities said 140 protests involving 32,800 people had been recorded outside Paris by midday, blaming the unrest and violence on what they said was the \u201cultra-left\u201d.<\/p>\n

The CGT, one of France\u2019s biggest labour unions, has also backed the protests, calling for \u201chigher wages and pensions, lower prices and the protection of public services that meet people\u2019s needs\u201d.<\/p>\n

About 45% of French people are worried about the rising cost of living and inflation, according to a 2,000-person survey conducted in October.<\/p>\n

Protesters \u2060in hi-vis vests blocked streets, an echo of the unrest that dogged President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s previous term, and in Marseille rubbish bins were set \u200balight.<\/p>\n

Both the far left and far right in France sought to capitalise on the protest movement, with the left positioning itself on the side of the protesters and the right backing the police.<\/p>\n

Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon, the leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, marched in a demonstration on Tuesday and has expressed support for student protesters.<\/p>\n

A large police presence was visible in central Paris, especially near landmarks such as \u2060the Avenue des Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es and the Arc de Triomphe, which were excluded from the routes of the two official demonstrations.<\/p>\n

About 100 people walked towards the police at the beginning protest yelling, \u201call cops are bastards!\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fighting because the cost of living is \u200ctoo harsh, because the price of \u200cfuel is too high, because high school pupils are being violently attacked and hurt all over the country just for trying to \u200cprotest and ask for more teachers and decent learning conditions,\u201d said a 19-year-old protester in Paris who gave her name as Lola.<\/p>\n

Macron is entering the final stretch of his presidency, leaving behind a polarised electorate and a badly fragmented political landscape.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the president appealed for calm and respect for people and property as officials warned of possible violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a constitutional right to protest and to express oneself, and I have always been vigilant and attentive that that right is fully respected,\u201d he said. \u201cBut this right comes with the need to respect. Respect for people, respect for property, and therefore a commitment not to insult or destroy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macron denounced as \u201cunacceptable\u201d the potential presence of people \u201csolely to cause damage and create unrest\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez said hundreds of protest actions and more than 80 marches were expected nationwide, including spontaneous gatherings, street demonstrations and blockades.<\/p>\n

Police banned some other proposed gatherings in central Paris. Many M\u00e9tro stations were closed on Saturday at the police\u2019s request, including those around the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es and near the presidential palace, parliament and government offices.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, there have been thousands of arrests, hundreds of injuries, and schools set on fire as the new school year descended into nationwide student protests that are influencing the country\u2019s presidential election campaign and drawing international attention.<\/p>\n

The police watchdog is investigating at least two dozen allegations of police violence, while the French prime minister said that more than 900 police officers had been injured.<\/p>\n

Among protesters, particularly gruesome wounds suffered by some teenagers have been blamed on police riot-control weapons<\/a>. Nu\u00f1ez suspended the use of a type of police stun grenade against the young demonstrators after a 15-year-old lost a hand, but said that they could be used on Saturday.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the climate and social justice activist Greta Thunberg joined students at a school in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis<\/p>\n

Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two questions arise from this: how much of this is an expression of opposition to Macron\u2019s political drift and how much is being orchestrated by George Soros and his accomplices? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":332164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-posts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=332161"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332171,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332161\/revisions\/332171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/332164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=332161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=332161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=332161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}