Chabe01 / CC BY-SA 4.0
French police made 360 arrests Saturday as tens of thousands of people marched across France over the rising cost of living, and education unions called a new day of strikes and protests for Tuesday.
The arrest tally is a provisional national count as of 7 p.m. Paris time, according to reports citing the Interior Ministry. The ministry said police also carried out nearly 40,000 preventive checks on roads and at train stations serving city centers, at the request of Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez.
The ministry counted 146,000 marchers nationwide, while the youth union coalition that organized the day put the figure at 250,000. In Paris, the police prefecture counted 46,000 marchers, against 75,000 claimed by organizers. The day was largely calm, with clashes reported mainly as crowds dispersed. In the capital, about a hundred “yellow vest” protesters gathered at the Place de la Concorde despite an official ban, and one of the movement’s leaders was arrested near the National Assembly.
The marches, over wages and purchasing power as higher prices squeeze household budgets, followed a national strike day on Thursday. A coalition of high school, student and teacher unions announced a new day of strikes and demonstrations for Tuesday, November 10, according to a statement from the Snes-FSU, the largest secondary-school teachers’ union.
JBizNews Desk | Paris, France
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