France: Hundreds of thousands of protesters demonstrate against the high cost of living

Faced with the hundreds of thousands of employees, civil servants, students, high school students and retirees who demonstrated in France on Thursday for purchasing power, the government announced a "social conference" on Monday with trade union and employer organizations.

The Interior Ministry counted 575,000 demonstrators nationwide (including 65,000 in Paris), more than on October 17 (550,000), October 24 (410,000), and October 31 (320,000). The CGT union, for its part, reported 1.6 million demonstrators, including 350,000 in the capital.

This day could be the culmination of a very hot social autumn in the eurozone's second largest economy, which is heavily indebted and under close market scrutiny to clean up its finances.

The CFDT and CGT unions, among the organizers of the national mobilization which they described as a "success", are demanding a substantial increase in the minimum wage (SMIC), and beyond that an increase in all wages.

The conference, announced by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, aims to "provide answers to questions of purchasing power and wages," his office said.

"The question being asked today is not 'will we win', but 'how much will we win?'", said Sophie Binet, head of the protesting CGT union, who is demanding "a 10% increase in the minimum wage".

Her counterpart from the CFDT (moderate), Marylise Léon, is calling for a boost to the minimum wage of 100 euros and demands "concrete answers" to address the current difficulty "of the French" in "making ends meet".

- Offenses -

Determined to avoid further riots like those of October 17, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced the mobilization of 70,000 police officers and gendarmes, promising "an extremely firm response" to any "outbreaks".

The start of the Paris demonstration was preceded by a minute of silence for the victims of the recent racist attack in Yvelines, in the suburbs of Paris.

Brief tensions erupted and damage was done along the route, where law enforcement intervened "to stop the violence and isolate the troublemakers," according to the police headquarters.

In some other cities, the marches were marred by violence, such as in Lyon (east-central France) where between 30,500 (according to the prefecture) and 55,000 people (according to the CGT union) demonstrated. An AFP photographer, wearing a "press" armband, was struck five times with a baton during a charge by riot police.

In Rennes (northwest), clashes escalated in the afternoon after a peaceful start to the demonstration, which drew between 20,600 (prefecture) and 35,000 people (unions). In Bordeaux (southwest), between 21,000 (prefecture) and 120,000 people (CGT) marched.

"The national tally at 6:00 PM reports 448 arrests," "53 members of the security forces injured," and "86 interventions for fires," the ministry stated, adding that the tally remained "provisional at this stage" and would be "consolidated in the coming hours."

The procession of the declared marches "generally went well," the ministry said, while deploring that "in many cities (Rennes, Marseille, Nantes, Lyon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg...), risky groups, each composed of several hundred radical and ultra-left activists, formed," demonstrating "great violence towards the police and gendarmes involved."

This first call to bring together the public and private sectors saw the rallying of high school and university students, yellow vest protesters who have relaunched protests against the high cost of living for three Saturdays, but also farmers.

Nearly a thousand high schools were blocked or administratively closed on Thursday according to the Snes-FSU, the main secondary school teachers' union, while the government counted only 81 out of the 3,700 in the country.

A third of higher education establishments have been "disrupted" according to the government, with the Student Union reporting "90%" of the approximately 70 universities "mobilized", meaning blocked or closed.

The unions' call to stop work was followed to varying degrees: nearly 16% of teachers were on strike according to the Ministry of National Education, while the Snes-FSU reported 52% of strikers among staff in middle and high schools.

- Echo in Europe -

Transport was not significantly disrupted, although "more than one in three railway workers at SNCF (National Railway Company) were on strike," Romain Pitelet, deputy general secretary of the CGT Cheminots, told AFP.

As for the tourists who hoped to visit the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe, they were disappointed: the two Parisian monuments remained closed.

Between soaring fuel prices and the proposed austerity budget, purchasing power is at the heart of social discontent, which has been growing since the end of the summer.

One in two people say they are struggling to make ends meet with their household resources, according to a barometer published Wednesday.

The protest movement is resonating in Europe.

Under a banner reading "From Greece to France, we fight for free public education", approximately 4,000 people marched on Thursday in Athens and Thessaloniki, the country's second largest city, according to police and AFP journalists.

Protests against the high cost of living and for more resources for education have also taken place in recent days in Germany, Belgium and Italy.