French police detained 135 people on Saturday as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Paris and other cities, according to the BBC. The Financial Times reports that roughly 70,000 officers were deployed nationwide to handle the demonstrations.
The unrest has left visible damage. The BBC describes the ruined city hall in Limoges as a symbol of a country split by the national protests.
Why it matters
The demonstrations are unfolding less than two years before France's presidential election, scheduled for 18 April and 2 May 2027. With the campaign already shaping public debate, the protests have become a stage on which rival political figures are positioning themselves — and a test of how the centrist government handles public disorder.
Political blame traded as candidates gear up
Marine Le Pen, the anti-immigration nationalist candidate, used a social media video address last Sunday to accuse Jean-Luc Mélenchon, her anti-capitalist left rival, of association with people who "look to throw the country into chaos," and she urged voters to "choose a different path" from the current centrist Macron government. Le Pen is due to formally open her 2027 campaign at her party's rally in Orléans on Sunday.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, a centrist, said last week that student anger was being exploited as the political temperature rises ahead of next year's vote. He later referred to "insurrections" being planned by what he called "small far-left and ultra-left groups."
Mélenchon, who is running second in most polls ahead of the centrist candidates, responded by holding Lecornu "responsible for the chaos," attributing it either to "incompetence or a worst-case strategy."
A divided country on display
The scale of the police deployment reported by the Financial Times points to how seriously authorities are treating the risk of further disorder. The New York Times reported that security forces were being deployed in an effort to prevent additional riots, while The Guardian reported that thousands marched in Paris and other French cities as protests also took place elsewhere in Europe.
The damage to Limoges city hall, highlighted by the BBC, has become a focal image of the unrest and of the divisions the protests have exposed.
What to watch: Le Pen's rally in Orléans on Sunday, and whether the security buildup holds the unrest in check as the presidential campaign intensifies.
