France to allow stun grenades again at Saturday's student and cost-of-living protests

Stun grenades back on the table

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced on Friday, 16 October, that police and gendarmes may again use stun grenades at the protests planned for Saturday, 17 October. The grenades had been suspended for a short period after criticism over the case of a 15-year-old who lost a hand during student demonstrations. Nuñez said they would be deployed if serious violence broke out in the main cities or during the marches. He stressed that officers rarely use stun grenades, but that the full range of intermediate weapons, from tear gas grenades to defence ball launchers (LBD), remains available in situations of extreme difficulty.

EL MUNDO reported that the suspension followed an incident in Lens in which a student lost a hand while trying to throw a grenade back at police. The suspension had been announced hours after an urgent meeting convened by President Emmanuel Macron, who called for ethics and proportionality at the student protests.

Saturday's marches

Nuñez said authorities had identified about 250 calls to protest circulating on social media, with around 80 demonstrations planned, and about half of those marches had already requested authorization. He said 40 protests had been formally declared so far, and that many others still needed approval from the authorities.

EL MUNDO put the number of demonstrations planned across France at more than 500, a figure far above the 250 calls and 80 marches cited by the other outlets. The day will bring together students with other groups, including the yellow vests, whose protests caused serious unrest in 2019, all opposing rising living costs. Nuñez warned that ultra-left elements tend to join at the end of some protests to provoke clashes and damage street furniture, and he voiced fears of violence in Bordeaux and Toulouse as well as of road blockades.

Policing and arrests under scrutiny

Nuñez argued that force is used only in response to aggression, and that videos on social media can give the impression that people are being detained for no reason. He said young people trust the police less than the general population does, which he attributed to a lack of understanding of the police role.

The arrest figures diverge between outlets. Europa Press reported almost 8,000 people detained so far, most of them minors. EL MUNDO reported more than 9,000 detained and about a thousand injured over the past three weeks, among them 930 police officers, 147 teachers and school heads, and more than a hundred students.

Prime Minister Sébastian Lecornu said on Thursday, 15 October, that the movement no longer looked like a student movement but rather urban violence. He said 200 of the country's 3,700 high schools had recorded persistent violence, often carried out by people outside the schools, and called for a clear distinction between urban violence and legitimate demands.