Physical altercations arose between officers and clusters of demonstrators in Paris on Saturday during a march tied to nationwide protests over the cost of living and concerns raised by secondary school students. Tear gas was deployed by officers at Place de la République, northeast of central Paris, to drive back a group that had covered their faces and were hurling fireworks and other projectiles toward the police line. Officers in protective gear were stationed across the plaza and the streets around it.

Demonstrations took place across France after calls spread through social media to revive the "yellow vest" movement, a protest wave that first took hold in 2018 over concerns about social inequality. Student groups, organising under a campaign of school blockades that began around mid-September, issued a call for additional people to take part.

France's CGT union added its backing to the demonstrations, calling on authorities to raise wages and pensions, bring down prices, and safeguard public services in line with what people actually need. By midday, the office of Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez had tallied more than 140 separate protest gatherings across the country outside Paris, drawing a combined attendance of over 30,000 people.

A nationwide tally of detentions reached at least 166, according to official figures. Nuñez's office drew attention to a range of unlawful acts carried out by masked individuals in Paris, Marseille, Rennes, Toulouse, and Angers, among them attempted looting, assaults on law enforcement, the deliberate burning of street furniture, and coordinated targeting of government buildings alongside media organisations.

Shops and a municipal police outpost in the Mediterranean port of Marseille sustained damage, and a group of demonstrators pushed through into the City Hall entrance hall before withdrawing. Payan, who leads Marseille's municipal government, told a television broadcaster that damage inside the entrance hall had been contained, with police having moved protesters out of the area.

Speaking from Brussels on Friday, Macron urged restraint, noting that while the constitutional right to protest and free expression must be upheld, it carries an obligation to act with respect. The call for mutual regard — honouring both people and their belongings, and therefore refraining from insult or destruction — preceded a decision by police to bar several other planned gatherings in central Paris.

On Saturday, transit access across a broad stretch of the city was curtailed at the request of law enforcement, with lines serving the Champs-Elysées, the presidential palace, parliament, and government ministry buildings all taken out of service.

Student demonstrations that swept across the country at the start of the academic term resulted in thousands of detentions, hundreds of people treated for injuries, and a number of school buildings set alight — developments that have shaped the presidential race and drawn notice beyond the country's borders. Injuries documented among protesters — including wounds to some adolescents that demonstrators have attributed to law enforcement crowd-control equipment — have drawn attention for their severity.

Following an incident in which a 15-year-old protester lost a hand, Nuñez halted deployment of a particular type of police stun grenade at the demonstrations. Thunberg, known for her advocacy on environmental and social equity issues, visited pupils at a secondary school located in Saint-Denis, a suburb north of Paris, on Tuesday.