By Juliette Jabkhiro and Alessandro Parodi
PARIS, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Demonstrators took to the streets of France on Saturday under the watch of 70,000 police officers, with unrest appearing markedly less severe than a week earlier despite scattered confrontations in several cities.
Tens of thousands of people marched peacefully through the French capital, according to police numbers, denouncing the high cost of living and accusing President Emmanuel Macron of cutting public services while failing to tackle rising inequality.
“Down with the state, the police and the fascists,” some of the flag-waving crowds chanted.
Elsewhere, police fired tear gas at people in Clermont-Ferrand, Grenoble, Lille and Nice, where a water cannon was deployed after protesters refused orders to pull back.
In France’s second and third cities, Marseille and Lyon, clashes broke out between hooded youths and police.
The government deployed 10,000 more police and gendarmes than on October 17, when nationwide protests descended into some of the worst unrest in France in years.
“We have to be ultra, ultra responsive,” said Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who has accused far-left groups and criminal gangs of fomenting violence.
Nunez told reporters that police had arrested 135 people nationwide by early afternoon, many following pre-emptive searches that he said had uncovered fireworks, ball bearings and other items that could be used as weapons.
SHOPS AND MUSEUMS SHUT
Much of central Paris took on the appearance of a city under lockdown, with shopkeepers boarding up storefronts, museums closing their doors and more than 20 metro stations shut.
Business groups urged retailers to remain closed after thousands of shops and businesses were damaged or looted across France last weekend.
“There are hardly any customers, so it’s not really worth staying open,” said Oskar, manager of a Kiton boutique in Paris.
Several of the capital’s best-known cultural institutions, including the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay and the Paris Opera, closed for the day as a precaution, leaving tourists frustrated.
“Everything’s boarded up and we’re not quite sure where we should be,” said Xavier Dolliole, a tourist from the US city of New Orleans.
The route for Paris’ main demonstration was settled only after a legal battle triggered by a last-minute police order moving organisers away from the city centre towards the southeastern fringes of the capital.
Police said the original route passed through areas with a high concentration of businesses similar to those targeted last weekend. Leftist politicians said the late change was aimed at causing confusion and keeping people away.
Hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, who joined the Paris rally, hailed what he called a “magnificent mass display of collective discipline and self-restraint”.
He said the protests would continue unless Macron addressed the social malaise in France, one of the world’s richest nations but with a growing debt that has alarmed investors.
“Given the current situation, I think he will come to understand that this will happen again every week. There is still time for (Macron) to give in. After that, the only thing left to him will be the exit door,” Melenchon told reporters.
FAR-RIGHT PARTY HOLDS CONGRESS
Many demonstrators have accused the government of overreacting, as soldiers were dispatched to patrol the Champs-Elysees, a grand boulevard lined with luxury shops and restaurants.
“We shed tears for shops, not for the people who are being impoverished all year round,” said Clara Lebbadi, a 22-year-old arts student.
“My friend and I almost didn’t come because we were scared, but we came precisely because it’s important not to let repression win,” she added.
The first authorised march on Saturday passed off peacefully in Orléans, around 120 km (75 miles) south of Paris, where demonstrators rallied against Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally as it held a party congress in the city.
A shooting west of Paris on Friday heightened tensions. A gunman suspected of acting out of Islamophobic hatred killed one person and wounded four others, including a 12-year-old girl.
“We have come to tell the far right, face-to-face, that we are not afraid,” said Bally Bagayoko, the mayor of Saint-Denis and a member of Melenchon’s France Unbowed party.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer, Bertrand Boucey, Yann Tessier, Alessandro Parodi in Paris and Elizabeth Pineau in Orleans; Writing by Crispian Balmer. Editing by Mark Potter, Ros Russell and Barbara Lewis)
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