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Hundreds arrested in violent protests across France as buildings burned and looted · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: There have been violent anti-government protests in towns and cities
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  Speaker 1: across France all day, with shops, businesses and public buildings vandalised,
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  Speaker 1: looted and set on fire. The Interior Minister said more
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  Speaker 1: than half a million people had taken part, angry about
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  Speaker 1: the cost of living and other issues. The trouble is
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  Speaker 1: still going on tonight in many areas. About 400 people
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  Speaker 1: have been arrested in all. President Macron condemned the violence
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  Speaker 1: across the country, promising to prosecute and punish those responsible.
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  Speaker 1: The biggest protests were in Paris, where more than 100,000
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  Speaker 1: people took to the streets. The mayor of Lyon said
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  Speaker 1: the burning of the city's tourism office was a tragedy.
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  Speaker 1: Civic buildings were targeted in many cities. In Limoges, City
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  Speaker 1: Hall has been badly damaged by fire. And in Marseille,
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  Speaker 1: the town hall was breached and vandalised by protesters. Our
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  Speaker 1: correspondent James Waterhouse is in Paris tonight.
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  Speaker 2: James. Jane, tonight Paris has descended into chaos. After the remaining,
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  Speaker 2: what you felt, genuine protest has started to disperse when
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  Speaker 2: riot police used familiar tactics of tear gas and water cannons,
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  Speaker 2: what the authorities say is that once again a minority
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  Speaker 2: have looked to capitalise on the disorder we are seeing
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  Speaker 2: through protests. Every district we tried to travel through in
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  Speaker 2: central Paris, there are burning barricades. There is widespread looting.
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  Speaker 2: We've seen glasses being smashed in. We had to abandon
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  Speaker 2: the taxi we were in because we weren't allowed to
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  Speaker 2: continue our journeys. It is a story right across the
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  Speaker 2: capital tonight. And once again, it's in danger of eclipsing
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  Speaker 2: the very real concerns many French people have that we've
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  Speaker 2: heard about today. It's been a day of demonstrations that
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  Speaker 2: has left its mark. It's been a day when presidential
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  Speaker 2: pleas for calm were ignored by an opportunistic minority. Entire
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  Speaker 2: districts descended into a state of lawlessness as people sought
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  Speaker 2: to loot, destroy and barricade. The situation is deteriorating pretty quickly.
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  Speaker 2: This is a departure from the protests we saw earlier
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  Speaker 2: in the day. It is still a minority of people
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  Speaker 2: that go out to cause trouble, but they disproportionately cause harm.
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  Speaker 2: Quite a lot of disruption and damage. There are barricades
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  Speaker 2: in all four directions. What is also different from the
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  Speaker 2: preceding protests is the lack of police control. Because earlier,
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  Speaker 2: familiar tactics of tear gas and water cannons did contain,
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  Speaker 2: although also antagonise, tens of thousands of demonstrators as grievances
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  Speaker 2: converged in the capital and across France. They include high
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  Speaker 2: costs of living, fuel prices... and the erosion of public services,
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  Speaker 2: a collective criticism of a centrist government struggling to find answers.
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  Speaker 3: I'm here because my children are here also, and they
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  Speaker 3: make a democratic manifestation, and we have the police who
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  Speaker 3: attack us permanently. The country is not any more democratic.
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  Speaker 3: It's gone bad.
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  Speaker 1: You try to change something and you're repressed.
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  Speaker 4: There's so much violence.
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  Speaker 1: French people cannot live properly.
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  Speaker 4: Everything concerning cars and the gas oil and stuff, it's
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  Speaker 4: so pricey.
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  Speaker 1: And French people cannot live even with two incomes in
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  Speaker 1: one single home.
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  Speaker 2: Over in Lyon, the site of its tourism office burning
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  Speaker 2: set the tone earlier. Town halls in several cities were
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  Speaker 2: also stormed, including in Marseille, to the fury of local officials.
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  Speaker 2: Rioters are not protesters, says the local mayor. And frankly,
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  Speaker 2: I want the rioters in prison. I want to know
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  Speaker 2: what's going on. The genuine protestations by the many have
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  Speaker 2: been eclipsed by the chaos and carnage that have surrounded them.
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  Speaker 2: For France, this is a perilous moment. But whether it's
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  Speaker 2: a turning point will be determined in the presidential elections
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  Speaker 2: in six months' time. The question of how France grapples
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  Speaker 2: with its massive, costly public debt will eventually need to
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  Speaker 2: be answered. And whatever taxes are raised or whatever spending
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  Speaker 2: is cut, it will alter the political course of this
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  Speaker 2: country as well as its citizens.
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  Speaker 1: James, thanks so much for now. James Waterhouse there in
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  Speaker 1: Paris and our Europe editor Katia Adler is here. So
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  Speaker 1: much violence today in France, weeks of protests, demonstrations in
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  Speaker 1: other countries too. This is a real challenge for governments.
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  Speaker 4: That's true. If we look at France, first of all,
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  Speaker 4: I mean, is this military power, our neighbour across the channel,
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  Speaker 4: the second largest economy in the Eurozone, really burning? I mean, yes,
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  Speaker 4: but also no. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated peacefully today.
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  Speaker 4: I was in Paris last week with students.
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  Speaker 2: Angry, yes.
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  Speaker 4: Violent, no. There were definite troublemakers amongst the crowds today,
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  Speaker 4: as we heard there from James McAvoy. but also allegations
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  Speaker 4: like from the French prime minister that there is a
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  Speaker 4: manipulation going on of real public anger ahead of those
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  Speaker 4: very fraught presidential elections this year. But yes, it's not
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  Speaker 4: just France. Albania, I mean, the capital there, Tirana, the
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  Speaker 4: fifth day of violence, mainly students. But again, it's cost
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  Speaker 4: of living. There's allegations of corruption, demands for the prime
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  Speaker 4: minister there to turn down. In Italy today, Bologna and Milan,
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  Speaker 4: violent demonstrations again, mainly students again. Italy heads to a
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  Speaker 4: general election next year. So does Spain. We saw those
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  Speaker 4: demonstrations in Spain earlier this month over the cost of living. Again,
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  Speaker 4: a general election coming up. and similar scenes in Greece
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  Speaker 4: and Belgium last week as well. So what does this mean?
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  Speaker 4: It means Europe is divided. It looks politically volatile. And
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  Speaker 4: who's watching, Jane? Vladimir Putin and detractors like him, delighted
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  Speaker 4: that voters and politicians are distracted, whereas Vladimir Zelensky, the
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  Speaker 4: president of Ukraine, is praying that all of these domestic
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  Speaker 4: woes in Europe mean that we won't forget his country.