Saturday's marches and the violence that followed

Protests over the cost of living and conditions in schools spread across France on Saturday, 17 October 2026. Tens of thousands joined calm marches in major cities including Paris, with parents, teachers and grandparents walking beside students and workers. An estimate cited by the BBC put the nationwide turnout at 550,000. Separately, other groups blocked streets, set fires and clashed with police in Paris, Bordeaux, Nice and Marseille, while masked looters smashed shopfronts and carried off goods.

Arrests, injuries and damage

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said in the evening that 1,200 people had been detained across the country and 150 police officers injured. Interior minister Laurent Nuñez later put the number of arrests at about 1,800, and the Guardian reported more than 2,000. In Paris, police said a record 855 people had been arrested, and authorities reported 557 people in custody in the capital. Injury figures for officers also differ, with one account giving 150 and another 600 injured police.

One estimate puts the number of damaged businesses at about 1,500, with losses in the hundreds of millions of euros. In Limoges, the 19th-century town hall was burned down. Shops were looted in Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nice and Strasbourg.

Paris shopkeepers describe the damage

On boulevard Magenta, more than 20 shops were looted or partly destroyed. The Urban Bakery café had closed a day early and boarded up its windows, but attackers hammered its facade until the pipes were exposed. An employee, Lilianne Prestat, described the scene as it unfolded.

“This does not look like France, I have never seen savagery like this.”

A Lyca Mobile shop manager said the attackers arrived after the march had passed, tore out security cameras and took about fifty computers and more than 100 phones. The shop's losses were put at at least 150,000 euros.

Government response and calls to resign

Lecornu visited officers deployed in central Paris and urged the public to choose between the Republic and the troublemakers. Politicians on the left and right called for Nuñez to resign, after the government appeared to have been caught off guard by the scale of the violence. The government held crisis talks on Sunday, 18 October. Macron, who is standing down next spring, wrote on social media that there was no place for violence in France and was due to address the nation that evening. Nuñez said investigations were under way to identify those responsible so they could be brought before justice. Authorities also prepared support for traders affected by the looting.

Political stakes

The violence comes roughly six months before the presidential election that will choose Macron's successor, Digi24 reported. A 78-year-old Paris resident said the morning after felt as though the city had been through a war. One death during the main march in Paris has been reported. Officials have not yet said how many of the arrested will face charges.