🇫🇷 About 550,000 people marched across France on Saturday, five times what domestic intelligence had predicted, as a month-old student revolt over crumbling schools merged with anger over the cost of living, the FT reported. Organizers said the actual number was around 800,000.
The movement began in September in high schools protesting teacher shortages, overcrowded classes and dilapidated buildings, and has drawn in universities, unions and the Yellow Vests.
Police have arrested about 2,400 people since Saturday, and more than 6,800 since the protests began, most of them minors. Stun grenades were suspended after one protester's hand was blown off, then reauthorized for Saturday, when another demonstrator lost a hand.
About 1,500 stores were ransacked and city halls in Lille, Marseille and Limoges were attacked, by early estimates.
"The heart of the matter is the protesters' demands, the problems facing students and the high cost of living," France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon told LCI.
🎥 Marseille
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