October 17: Two unauthorized marches in Paris, 61 arrests

Two unauthorized processions formed in mid-morning on Saturday in Paris, prompting police intervention to disperse them, the police prefecture announced, reporting 61 arrests at 11:00 AM (French time) as part of the mobilization against the "high cost of living".

The first procession, a union rally made up of about a hundred people, according to the police prefecture, formed in the area of the Gare du Nord before joining the rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, in the 10th arrondissement.

The second, composed of high school students and of a similar scale, began on rue de Rennes, the police prefecture added, specifying that at 11:00 (French time), 61 arrests and 589 preventive checks had been carried out and four fixed fines issued.

On Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, a procession of about 200 demonstrators, some of them masked, faced off against helmeted police officers in the mid-morning, and the situation became tense, AFP journalists observed.

Police used tear gas to disperse the wildcat demonstration and at the entrance to the street, at the level of Boulevard Magenta, the demonstrators were chanting "Siamo Tutti antifascisti" and "Acab", according to the same source.

At Montparnasse station, approximately 150 young people gathered and then marched down Rue de Rennes, chanting "Macron is waging war on us, and so is his police," an AFP journalist observed. Police charged down Rue du Vieux Colombier and trapped a large part of the group between buildings and a police cordon, according to the same source.

Met in front of Montparnasse station, Blanche, a high school sophomore (name changed), was waiting for friends. She had prepared a sign reading "A mobilized youth is a force that frightens even atomic bombs (Thomas Sankara)" and would demonstrate "so that there is funding for public education, so that all high school students have adequate conditions in their classrooms."

She and her two friends spoke of their apprehension regarding the risk of police repression on Saturday. "When the population starts to be afraid to demonstrate, that's the beginning of fascism," said Blanche.

On the Champs-Elysées, two young people, who were carrying diving masks, a paving stone, an empty glass bottle and pepper spray, were fined, another AFP journalist observed.