France dodges rerun of looting and riots at protests with tough security

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Nathanaël Combary, of the Renouveau Lycéen high school union, which is due to meet with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu on Monday, said students were ready to continue demonstrating in the absence of concrete measures.

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“The period of dialogue has lasted long enough,” he told Sunday newspaper La Tribune Dimanche. “We now expect action.”

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One site has already called for another round of protests on Oct. 31, while labor unions are calling for a major day of strikes and protests on Nov. 5. The CGT pledged to expand the movement until its demands are met.

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“The anger is immense, and our determination is even greater,” the CGT said in a statement. “The government and employers must urgently respond to our social demands.”

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Backed by a disparate group of social media figures, students, unions and left-wing parties, Saturday’s demonstrations were framed as an “Acte II,” or second round, of the movement, which still has majority support in polls.

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An Ipsos-BVA-Cési École d’ingénieurs survey for Le Parisien published on Saturday showed that while far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is still firmly in the lead ahead of next April’s presidential election, the far-left France Unbowed leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has also received a boost from the unrest and stands in second place, ahead of various centrist competitors. The poll of 1,500 adults was taken online on Oct. 21 and Oct. 22.

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Mélenchon has been blamed by political rivals for stoking tensions, while he has accused the police of violence and called on Macron to give in to the movement’s demands or risk having to do so in much more hazardous conditions.

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The unrest has come amid concerns about France’s public finances that has pushed a closely watched gauge of bond risk to levels last seen during the euro-area debt crisis.

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The bloc’s second-biggest economy dodged a downgrade at Moody’s Ratings late on Friday, but the company warned that the widespread protests “could constrain fiscal consolidation efforts.”

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Preliminary gross domestic product data for the quarter through Sept. 30 is due on Friday. Analysts expect expansion of just 0.1% after zero growth in the previous quarter, adding to the fiscal challenge faced by the government.

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Protests continued elsewhere in Europe over the weekend too. About 100 people were arrested in Barcelona while thousands marched in cities across Italy amid a heavy police presence, with scattered clashes reported. Albania’s capital of Tirana continued to be rocked by demonstrations against its prime minister.

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Protesters burned containers, vandalized shops, and threw stones at police in the area around Catalunya Square in central Barcelona. About one-quarter of those detained were minors, Nuria Parlon, the Catalan head of security, and Jaime Collboni, mayor of Spain’s second largest city, said at a joint press conference.

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—With assistance from Rodrigo Orihuela.

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