Credit : BRICS NEWS
PARIS, October 24, 2026 — A huge protest has broken out in Paris, BRICS News reported on X on Saturday, as hundreds of thousands of people marched across France against the rising cost of living.
The post, published at about 11.01pm Malaysia time and marked “JUST IN”, read: “Huge protest breaks out in Paris.” It was accompanied by video footage showing a dense crowd filling a wide boulevard.
https://x.com/BRICSinfo/status/2114009448293257650
According to France 24, the main Paris march drew between 110,000 people, according to police, and 250,000, according to the CGT union. Nationwide turnout was put at between 410,000 and 800,000 by authorities and organisers respectively. The marches were called over the rising cost of living and low school funding, the Times of Israel reported.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said police arrested nearly 1,000 people across the country after officers faced “an extremely elevated level of violence” from black-clad “ultra-left” extremists. Riot police fired tear gas in Paris as well as in Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Lille, Toulouse, Montpellier and Nantes. Two people were seriously injured, one in Toulouse and one in Clermont-Ferrand, Nuñez said.
In Paris, where many shops had boarded up their windows and the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay were shut for the day, the main demonstration passed off largely peacefully after authorities moved it to the south-eastern edge of the capital. Clashes broke out as the crowd dispersed, with Nuñez saying the confrontations lasted two hours and involved about 500 rioters at the back of the march. France 3 reported the clashes took place near Porte de Vincennes.
Authorities deployed 70,000 security personnel nationwide for the marches, which came a week after rioting in which public buildings were vandalised, hundreds of shops looted and 2,700 people arrested. Nuñez described the march as having gone well and said Saturday’s outcome was more “positive” than the previous week.
President Emmanuel Macron’s government has ordered police to keep protesters out of city centres and imposed partial curfews in some urban zones, and Macron had ordered non-union demonstrations banned as “illegitimate”. The crackdown has drawn widespread anger from critics who see it as an assault on the right to protest. Far-left politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who joined the Paris march, said Macron “is going to understand that this is going to repeat itself every week”. In Nantes, thousands of protesters broke through police lines to reach the city centre, while in Cannes and Montpellier far-right activists came out seeking confrontations with “ultra-left militants”, in what authorities called an unprecedented development. Looting was reported on the sidelines of marches in Marseille and Grenoble.
Tensions were heightened by a rally in Orléans by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally to launch her presidential campaign, which drew thousands of counter-protesters. France votes in six months to choose a successor to Macron. Inflation, particularly in fuel prices, has surged in France since the Middle East war began in February, France 24 reported. The Yellow Vests movement has called for further demonstrations on October 31 for “the freedom to protest”.
Source: BRICS News on X, France 24, AFP and France 3.
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