France after its worst riots in years: more than half a million on the streets, and Macron threatens to ban protests

France is waking up among smashed shop windows and the charred shells of cars, after the most serious and violent unrest in several years. Mass anti-government protests turned into street clashes, arson and looting across the country, and politicians immediately launched a war of accusations.

According to the French Interior Ministry, more than half a million people took to the streets in 110 cities on Saturday. The CGT union claims there were as many as 800,000. Most gatherings passed off peacefully, but rioters completely wrecked or looted around 1,500 shops and business premises. In Limoges an arson attack almost destroyed the 143-year-old town hall, a building that survived the Second World War. In Marseille masked demonstrators stormed the local government building and smashed the bust of Marianne, the national symbol of the Republic.

The toll: one demonstrator in Paris died of a heart attack, around two thousand people were arrested, and more than 600 police officers were injured, seven of them seriously. Scenes in central Paris resembled a war zone, and guests and tourists were evacuated from hotels around Place de la République.

It started in the classrooms

None of this began with barricades. It began with classrooms. Last month secondary school students walked out over the disastrous state of French schools: crumbling buildings, overcrowded classes, overloaded timetables, a chronic shortage of teachers and staff, and systematic underfunding. They are also demanding the immediate scrapping of the state university admissions platforms, which they see as unfair and overly selective. The protests radicalised quickly - teenagers blockaded hundreds of secondary schools, at least 24 schools were set on fire or badly damaged, and thousands of young people have been detained since early September.

The anger exploded over the brutal police response. Prosecutors and the police watchdog are investigating at least 34 cases of serious abuse of police powers. Among the worst are a fifteen-year-old whose left hand was blown apart by a police stun grenade and a fourteen-year-old badly maimed after an officer hit him at close range with a tear-gas canister. When a state answers children asking for teachers with stun grenades, who has really lost control?

In October the students were joined by trade unions, environmental groups and civic initiatives. The French are angry about the rising cost of living and soaring fuel prices, pushed even higher by the war in Iran. Farmers squeezed by rising production costs also took to the roads. On social media, groups linked to the former "Yellow Vests" have become active again.

Macron threatens, Le Pen waits

President Emmanuel Macron rejected the resignation of Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez to preserve the chain of command and, in an address to the nation, warned that the state would ban protests outright if necessary. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu accused the radical left, above all the France Unbowed party, of deliberately turning students against the police. Its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon shot back that Lecornu is personally to blame for the chaos - either through incompetence or through a deliberate strategy of unrest designed to justify a firm hand and distract from the collapse of the public finances.

The unrest is pushing France, the European Union's second-largest economy, into a deep social and fiscal crisis. The government is trying to force an unpopular budget with sharp cuts through parliament, and the main beneficiary is far-right leader Marine Le Pen, the favourite in every poll for next spring's presidential election. A government that answers anger on the streets with a threatened ban instead of an answer - will Paris pay for that lesson at the ballot box?