Demonstrations began across France on Saturday in what is expected to become a nationwide day of protest, as yellow vest activists joined a movement that began in mid-September at a high school in the Paris suburb of Créteil, over dilapidated buildings, overcrowded classrooms and teacher shortages. The mobilisation has since spread to thousands of high schools, and teachers, trade unions and university students have joined it; a tracking site listed more than 1,750 planned protest locations across the country. In Paris a heavy police presence guarded the Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe, which were excluded from the two official protest routes, protesters in yellow vests blocked streets, and garbage bins were set on fire in Marseille, Arab News reported.
The authorities have described the unrest as among the most violent in decades, with more than 900 police injured since the protests began, and reports published this week put the number of children taken into police custody since mid-September at more than 6,700. France suspended the use of stun grenades for the student demonstrations, but Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said on Friday that he had authorized police to use them in the event of urban violence, and that he expected a fairly significant turnout on Saturday. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Thursday that the country was in a moment of fatigue and an atmosphere of permanent crisis, and the government has accused the far-left France Unbowed party of inflaming the protests, which the party rejects.