Hundreds of thousands of people marched across France on Saturday 24 October in a second weekend of protests against the rising cost of living and deteriorating school conditions. France’s Interior Ministry put nationwide turnout at 410,000, including 110,000 in Paris, while unions put both figures at nearly double the official totals.
Authorities had deployed about 70,000 police and gendarmes to prevent a repeat of the previous weekend’s violence. Rallies were largely peaceful, but clashes broke out in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Lille, Toulouse and other cities as night fell, and police said nearly 1,000 people were arrested nationwide.
The protests began with student action over school conditions in mid-September and have broadened into a wider cost-of-living movement backed by unions. For Pakistan, the episode is a reminder of how global inflation pressures are straining household budgets far beyond one country, with energy and food prices at the centre of the discontent.
Sources: Al Jazeera, Malay Mail (AFP). Written in our own words for information only.