Almost 1,000 people have been arrested during protests across France, the interior minister says as clashes erupt after a day of mostly peaceful demonstrations
In Porte de Vincennes, Paris, protesters threw objects towards the police, while barricades were set alight in Marseille and people ripped boards from a shop in Bordeaux
Police fired tear gas in cities including Lyon and Nantes as hundreds of thousands took to the streets across France - 110,000 protesters marched in Paris alone, police say
But - as our correspondent in Paris reports - there has not yet been a repeat of the chaos seen during previous demonstrations
Today's marches follow last weekend's riots and looting that saw more than 2,700 arrested - why are people protesting?
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez tells French media that nearly 1,000 people have been arrested during demonstrations across France.
French broadcaster BFM TV cites Nuñez as saying that "this number will increase".
Image source, ReutersProtesters stand in front of smoke on Skanderbeg Square during an anti-government protest in the Albanian capital Tirana,
Outside of France, protests have also been taking place in Belgium, Albania and Italy.
In Brussels, police used teargas and pepper spray during clashes with anti-government demonstrators calling for better conditions in the education system.
In the Albanian capital Tirana, thousands attended an anti-government rally with police firing teargas to disperse them.
In Milan, Italy, there was a crackdown by police and soldiers ahead of planned protests against rising living costs. The government approved tighter security meaning things were calmer than last weekend, which saw riots and looting.
Image source, EPA/ShutterstockMembers of an antifascist group take part in a demonstration in Brussels in Belgium
An estimated 410,000 people marched across France on Saturday, according to Interior Ministry figures obtained by French media.
But the CGT - one of the trade unions who organised the protests - estimates total attendance was 800,000, almost double the government's count.
In Paris, the CGT union estimated 250,000 demonstrators, while the Interior Ministry and Paris police recorded about 110,000.
Crowd size can be difficult to estimate and there's often a discrepancy in how attendance at protests is reported.
Image source, Reuters
Image source, Getty ImagesIn Porte de Vincennes, Paris, protesters can be seen throw objects towards the police
As skies darken in France, some protesters across the country are clashing with police.
In Paris, where approximately 110,000 people marched as part of a nationwide protest, much of the day was calm.
We're now seeing images of demonstrators in Porte de Vincennes, Paris, throwing objects towards law enforcement and makeshift barricades being erected.
This follows earlier disruption in other French cities. In Bordeaux, people were seen ripping boards from a shop and forming barricades.
Image source, Getty ImagesMakeshift barriers have been erected in Paris
Image source, Getty ImagesIn Marseille, a law enforcement vehicle has driven through a burning barricade
Image source, Getty ImagesFrench Police officers in riot gear as flames rise on the Cours Saint-Andre in Nantes
In Nantes, police say 41 people have been apprehended in connection with violence during "undeclared gatherings".
In a statement on X, the Préfet des Pays de la Loire et de Loire-Atlantique says officers remain "fully mobilised" to combat violence and looting in the city in northwestern France.
Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent
Once again it’s at the end of the demonstrations that law and order begins to break down.
Here in Paris riot police have been baton-charging groups of masked youths who’ve been smashing the windows of a car dealership on the Cours de Vincennes.
Thick clouds of tear gas fill the air, and there’s been a fair amount of water-cannoning as well.
Earlier it had been a totally peaceful demonstration taking more than 100,000 marchers on a route well away from the city centre.
There are big police reinforcements compared to last week, and - as the Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez explained - systematic bag checks on protesters yielded results.
In other flashpoint cities from last week - like Marseille and Lyon - it’s been a similar picture: some clashes on the edge of demonstrations but on nothing like the same scale as last week.
And in Orléans - where the hard-right National Rally is holding its annual Congress - a march by 10,000 left-wing opponents passed off peacefully.
Nearly 400 "masked individuals" committed acts of vandalism and attacked police "with mortars and projectiles" on the sidelines of protests in Grenoble, the local prefecture says.
The statement says the masked protesters were from the "black bloc" group and police intervened to restore order in the city, in the south-east of France.
The demonstration had been organised by the CGT union and yellow vest movement, the prefecture adds in a post on X.
Police in Paris say they have mobilised an elite unit called BRI-PP to intervene in the capital and surrounding areas.
The unit usually focuses on organised crime and counter-terrorism operations.
It's not the only elite policing squad to have been deployed at the protests; earlier, we reported that Brav M officers were patrolling the streets of Paris on motorbikes.
About 70,000 police officers have been mobilised nationwide today.
Image source, Préfecture de Police
Jacob Phillips
Live reporter
Image source, ReutersProtesters take cover as a water canon is used at a demonstration in Paris
Police in Paris say that more than 3,000 checks have been carried out and 65 people were arrested during demonstrations in the French capital.
Here is a reminder of some other disruptions:
According to French broadcaster BFMTV, protests have been permitted in eight cities in France.
The yellow vests, key participants in last weekend's protests, previously said more than 700 gatherings were planned across France on Saturday.
Image source, ReutersMarine Le Pen has urged voters to "choose a different path" following the unrest
The protests in France come ahead of the country's presidential election, scheduled on 18 April and 2 May 2027.
Presidential candidates from the anti-immigration nationalist right (Marine Le Pen) and also the anti-capitalist left (Jean-Luc Mélenchon) are vying to make headlines.
Le Pen launched a video address via social media last Sunday blaming Mélenchon for his associates who "look to throw the country into chaos", while also urging French voters to "choose a different path" from the current centrist Macron government.
Last week, France's centrist Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu suggested that student anger was being manipulated as politics heats up ahead of next year's vote - later speaking of "insurrections" planned by "small far-left and ultra-left groups".
Mélenchon, currently running in second place in most polls ahead of centrist candidates, accused Lecornu of being "responsible for the chaos" either due to "incompetence or a worst-case strategy".
Marine Le Pen is expected to officially launch her 2027 presidential campaign at her party's rally in Orléans on Sunday.
Police in Paris say that 110,000 people marched in the capital today as part of nationwide protests.
The situation across the city was mostly "calm", they add.
A major police operation in under way in Milan, reports our team from Italy - where demonstrations were also planned.
Police and military officers are stopping and searching groups of teenagers, to prevent anyone gathering for a protest.
Image source, Getty ImagesFrench hard-right leader Marine Le Pen thanks law enforcement officers who are out on the streets across France today.
In a post on X, she writes: "A tribute to our law enforcement forces, to our gendarmes, and to all those mobilised today everywhere in France to ensure the safety of the French people."
She is in Orléans, the location of her National Rally party's two-day conference.
Around 13,000 people have taken to the streets there to protest the party.
An image from Marseille shows masked protesters preparing a barricade.
Elsewhere in the south of France, protesters in Bordeaux have also been building barricades.
Image source, ReutersLocal authorities in Orléans say 13,000 people "peacefully" marched against the National Rally as of 14:00 local time (13:00 BST).
They were demonstrating against the hard-right party, which is holding a two-day conference in the city.
Jordan Bardella was re-elected as president during the event and Marine Le Pen is set to launch her presidential campaign.
Image source, Reuters
Nick Beake
Europe correspondent, in Paris
Image source, ReutersProtesters disperse after tear gas is used in Lyon
This time last week, several major French cities were descending into chaos. Looting had begun and tear gas filled many streets. In Marseille, the police were overwhelmed, eventually running out of gas canisters, as one police union rep later told us.
Today, no such repeat. At least so far.
Two factors are in the police’s favour at the moment.
First - many marches have been banned or their routes changed or curtailed.
Second - the weather, at least in the capital. Rain is becoming heavier here and open umbrellas rather than outright mayhem is the current view.
We see there is now some tear gas being used in Marseille, Lyon and Nantes as well.
The truth is, over the past decade, it would have been highly unusual for it not to be deployed at some point during a major gathering of protesters.
Even within crowds of overwhelmingly peaceful groups, police frequently use it to disperse crowds at the end of official rallies, particularly if they’ve identified a hardcore and potentially violent element.
But it’s not yet nightfall and things can change quickly.
Protesters have been pictured running away and trying to cover their mouths after tear gas was fired in Lyon.
Here are some of the latest images from the city in the east of France.
Image source, Reuters
Image source, Reuters
Image source, Reuters
Image source, Préfète de la Nouvelle-Aquitaine et de la Gironde/XPolice in Bordeaux, southern France, say some protesters are throwing projectiles, attacking law enforcement and setting up barricades on Place de la Bourse.
They warn people should avoid the area.
Video footage, shared by the prefecture, shows people in dark clothing and face coverings taking boards off a building and using them to form a barricade along a street.
Image source, ReutersProtesters move amid smoke after tear gas is deployed in Lyon
Tear gas has been fired in cities across France as protests continue.
Tear gas grenades were used to disperse the crowd in Lyon, while footage of the protests also shows tear gas being used on crowds in Marseille.
"There were around 150 of us, mostly secondary school and university students," says one protester in Lyon.
"Then the tear gas came almost immediately. You could barely see anything in the street."
French newspaper Le Parisien says police have been using water cannon and there are reports of tear gas being fired in Nice.
Police also fired tear gas at several hundred demonstrators in Clermont-Ferrand, according to French broadcaster France3.
Earlier on Saturday, police said they used tear gas and a water cannon as protesters attempted to breach a restricted area in Nantes.
We're now receiving agency pictures showing the head of the Paris protest arriving at Porte de Vincennes, the end point of the authorised demonstration.
They are escorted by CRS riot police officers.
Image source, Reuters