Second wave of protests across France: programmes at 136 places, tear gas and water cannon in Nantes

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets again in various cities across France. On Saturday, a second phase of protests began, organised by students, trade unions and various anti-government groups. Huge numbers of people came out onto the streets at the start of the day, and protests were reported in more than 100 places across the country.

The protests originated in demands by high school students. They had demanded improvements to the school environment and an end to staff shortages. Later, the movement turned violent in some places. Saturday's protests were joined by trade unions and opposition parties alongside that student movement, driven by anger over the rising cost of living.

Because some protests in previous weeks had turned violent, several thousand additional police personnel were deployed this time. Curfews were imposed in many parts of the country, various institutions were kept closed and bans were placed on protests. Even so, people gathered in several cities defying the bans.

France's hard-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon joined a march with crowds in central Paris. Shortly after the protest began in the French capital, the politician was seen raising a clenched fist. Protesters waved flags, displayed various placards and chanted slogans through megaphones — and in this way the huge march began to move forward.

The situation was heated in the western French city of Nantes. At a protest held there, French riot police were seen surrounded by tear gas smoke. Police in Nantes said tear gas and water cannon were used to disperse protesters after an attempt was made to break through the cordon of a prohibited area around an unauthorised gathering.

In Bordeaux too, protesters did not obey the ban. Despite a ban on all gatherings and despite tram services being suspended, protesters gathered at Place de la Bourse. That gathering in the city showed that, despite the bans, the spread of the movement had not stopped.

Brigitte Coudert, general secretary of the CGT-Commerce and Services union in the Gironde region, said, 'Whether the protest is banned or not, we will stand beside the high school students' movement and will not leave them alone. We are parents, we were once young too, and we are also workers.' Her statement made clear the solidarity of labour organisations with the student movement.

The same picture was seen in Nice. Police said that despite a ban on all gatherings, several hundred people had gathered at Place Masséna; police ordered them to disperse. Police tactics therefore differed from city to city — tear gas in some places, only an order to disperse in others.

However, France's interior ministry said participation was lower this time than the previous week. Ministry official Laurent Nunes said about 35,000 people took part in marches across the country, compared with 60,000 last Saturday. In other words, within a week the number of participants has fallen to almost half.

He also said authorities had identified protest programmes in public at 136 places, compared with 264 programmes the previous weekend. Although both the number of programmes and participation have fallen, Saturday's protests took place simultaneously across the country and affected major cities including Paris.

The two main strands of the protest are now clear — on one side the students' original demands about the school environment and staff shortages, and on the other the broader anger of trade unions and opposition parties over the cost of living. The merging of these two strands is what has turned the movement from one confined to students into a national one.

Attention will now be on the coming weeks — if participation continues to fall, pressure on the government may ease as well, and if the movement revives, new debate will arise over the bans and policing measures. For now, Saturday's picture says that, even if smaller in number, France's street movement has not yet stopped.