France on edge: nearly 800 protests as police clash with demonstrators

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators stormed streets across France Saturday, resuming a fresh wave of far-left driven protests that this time were met by a beefed-up security presence.Government officials estimate 410,000 protestors, while labor unions put the figure closer to 800,000, according to media reports.Approximately 110,000 protesters gathered in rainy Paris, where clashes erupted at Porte de Vincennes, at the end of a march when some in the crowd threw bottles and rocks at police, who fired tear gas and used water cannons, injuring two.“Down with the state, the police and the fascists!” demonstrators shouted.Nearly 1,000 people were arrested during some 800 demonstrations across France, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said, adding “this number will increase.”Many of the arrested were carrying weapons, including fireworks, sling shots, steel balls and AK-47 rifles and Scorpion submachine guns.Roughly 70,000 officers and gendarmerie were deployed to avert last weekend’s chaos, the worst unrest in the nation in years.The cops — most dressed in riot gear and equipped with a cache of smoke grenades — were backed up on land by blue Centaure vehicles, 14.5-ton trucks equipped with ballistic and explosive protection.

The vehicles patrolled some of the larger demonstrations, including directly behind the National Assembly and near the Champs-Élysées in Paris.Fifteen water cannons were deployed to prevent another explosion of mayhem.“We have to be ultra, ultra responsive,” Interior Minister Laurent Núñez declared, accusing far-left activists and opportunist criminal gangs of abusing the movement to wreak havoc.Protestors demanded relief from rising living costs, among an ever-expanding array of grievances, with one telling The Post, “We’re here to fight for the rights of everyone … we’re in 2026 and no one can find a job.”Another man angrily blasted, “We’re forced to work under the table, we’re forced to do dirty s–t...