On October 17, France witnessed some of the most massive protest rallies in recent months, which in a number of cities escalated into riots, arson, and clashes with law enforcement agencies. According to Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, at least 550,000 people took to the streets, and by Saturday noon, 140 protests with over 30,000 participants were recorded outside the Paris region. Events in individual cities continued until the early hours of October 17, and the minister summarized the day's events on Sunday, October 18, in a post on social media X.
Laurent Nuñez's Statement: 'The Republic Will Not Yield'
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez stated that starting from noon, and in Marseille even from the morning, several thousand radical left-wing supporters were determined to attack public buildings and clash with law enforcement officers. According to him, they were subsequently joined by wrongdoers who looted and damaged businesses. Nuñez emphasized that the right to demonstrate cannot justify violence, and thanked the police, gendarmes, and firefighters who worked in difficult conditions. 'Currently, 1,800 people have been detained, and as of today, investigations are ongoing to identify those involved in these crimes so they can be brought to justice,' the minister stated. He added: 'The Republic will not yield to those who seek to impose disorder and violence.'
Scale of Damage and Casualties
According to preliminary data, more than 500 police officers, gendarmes, and firefighters were injured. Nuñez stressed that this figure may still change. Riots were recorded in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Rennes, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Nice, Limoges, and other cities. Participants attacked law enforcement officers, assaulted government institutions, damaged public buildings, broke into prefectures and town halls, and looted businesses. Alexander Bompard, President of the French Retail Federation, reported that about 1,500 stores and retail outlets were damaged, with total material losses reaching hundreds of millions of euros. Hundreds of entrepreneurs, in particular, suffered significant losses.
Riots in Belgium: Brussels and Liège
Isolated clashes also took place in Belgium on October 17. According to the Le Soir newspaper, clashes and acts of vandalism broke out in central Brussels on Saturday afternoon. In the Marolles district, demonstrators damaged property on Lemonnier Boulevard and Stalingrad Avenue, smashed windows in the office of the Brussels federation of the Socialist Party (PS), set garbage bags on fire, damaged construction equipment, and flipped a car-sharing vehicle onto its roof. At the Place de la Bourse, participants chanted anti-police slogans; between 6:00 PM and 7:00 PM, clashes occurred near the square again, and law enforcement officers dispersed the crowd using force and tear gas. Later, a new column formed on Anspach Boulevard and moved towards the Ninove Gate: trash cans were overturned and set on fire in the streets, and shared bicycles and scooters were left in the middle of the roadway. Around 8:00 PM, the situation calmed down, but police continued to patrol the area. About ten people were detained in Brussels during the day. According to the publication, many participants in Saturday's events were minors, including children under 12.
Riots were also recorded in Liège. On Saturday afternoon at Saint-Lambert Square, about 30 demonstrators were surrounded by helmeted police; a fire engine was operating at the scene, spraying water at the protesters. People behind the police cordon chanted, 'Release our comrades!' Earlier that day, a column of demonstrators blocked several transport routes in the Cadran area, including the entrance to the motorway towards Burenville. Some participants tried to move barriers to build barricades, but police arrived before they could be erected and dispersed the crowd. According to law enforcement, between 200 and 250 people gathered peacefully in the Guillemins area around 10:00 AM, after which the column headed to Saint-Lambert Square, where a sit-in protest blocked bus traffic.
Background: From Student Protests to Nationwide Unrest
Protests in France began in September with student and teacher rallies against a lack of funding for education. The mass demonstrations on October 17 were preceded by four weeks of student protests over unsatisfactory learning conditions in French high schools, some of which also turned violent. Subsequently, trade unions and supporters of the 'yellow vests' movement joined the students, protesting also against rising prices. According to The Hindu, protesters partly attribute the price increases to geopolitical factors. The French government convened a crisis headquarters to coordinate response measures. According to several sources, since the start of the protest campaign in September, the total number of detainees in the country has exceeded 5,000, but specifically for October 17, Nuñez stated the figure is over 1,800.
