PARIS.- France's third straight weekend of protests ended on Saturday, October 31, 2026, with 320,000 people marching nationwide, 565 arrests by nightfall, five officers injured in Paris and a night curfew in parts of the capital, according to the Interior Ministry. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the marches had gone "well" overall — and at the same time denounced what he called the "unheard-of violence" of rioters on the sidelines.
The balance, published on Sunday, November 1, is the outcome of the Halloween marches previewed before the weekend: a movement that began with students over school conditions and has broadened into a protest over the rising cost of living, inequality and deteriorating public services, bringing together Yellow Vest activists, labour unions and high school and university students.
The numbers: fewer marchers, fewer arrests than a week ago
The Interior Ministry counted 320,000 demonstrators across France, including 70,000 in Paris. Youth unions behind the marches claimed nearly half a million nationwide, including 200,000 in the capital. Either way, turnout fell from 410,000 the previous Saturday and from more than 500,000 on October 17, when protests degenerated into some of the worst rioting in years.
Arrests also fell: 565 people had been arrested across the country by 9 p.m. on Saturday, against about 800 at the same point a week earlier and roughly 1,000 the week before that. Some 70,000 police and gendarmes had been deployed nationwide, and police carried out 40,000 checks, 15,000 of them around Paris.
What turned violent
Most marches were peaceful — even festive in Paris, where thousands marched in Halloween costumes, from Spider-Man to Frankenstein, under placards reading "No need for tear gas to make our future look bleak" and "Dressed up as an angry citizen for Halloween." The main Paris march had been moved outside the city centre after a last-minute court fight over the route.
From late afternoon, however, clashes broke out in Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon and Bordeaux. In eastern Paris, protesters threw paving stones and incendiary devices at police from around 5 p.m., and police answered with tear gas and water cannon. In Paris, four police officers and one gendarme were injured, three of them burned by Molotov cocktails. Nuñez described a Molotov cocktail thrown at a riot officer in Paris as an "attempted murder," adding that the officer escaped with minor injuries.
A night-time curfew was imposed in the central Paris neighbourhoods of République and Châtelet-Les Halles from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday nights.
What comes next
The movement is not over. Student unions have called for blockades of schools and universities on Tuesday, ahead of a national strike on Thursday, November 5. The demonstrations come in a febrile political climate, with presidential elections less than six months away and Marine Le Pen topping opinion polls.
Sources: Malay Mail (AFP), November 1, 2026; The Straits Times (AFP), November 1, 2026; Associated Press via Tutubi, November 1, 2026.