France rocked by fresh mass protests over soaring living costs and police powers

Resumen detallado

Unions call fresh strikes for Tuesday, rejecting a 0.6 percent minimum wage rise as "crumbs", after last week's protests drew over 500,000 people nationwide.

Around 106,000 people attended cost-of-living protests in France on Saturday, including 24,000 in Paris, the interior minister said, in the lowest turnout estimate for weekend rallies in recent weeks.

Student unions put the number of demonstrators at 200,000, including almost 100,000 in the capital.

The European Union's second largest economy has been gripped by high-school blockades and mass demonstrations for more than a month, with the far right leading in the polls to win presidential elections next year to replace Emmanuel Macron.

"No justice, no peace," a protester shouted into a megaphone in Paris as people including students, unions and Yellow Vest activists demonstrated for the fifth Saturday in a row.

Others called for the president to resign, or cried "Everybody hates the police", as a group carried a giant puppet whose hat read "Lord Macron".

Some of the largely peaceful rallies in recent weeks have seen fringe violence, as well as accusations of police brutality, including against young teenagers.

Adrien, a 20-year-old cello player in a volunteer orchestra at the Paris rally, said the focus of the day was a new bill in parliament to give police who use their weapons further protection.

"We're scared when we come to a protest, and this will only make us even more afraid if their impunity is strengthened," he said, after tear gas fell on protesting musicians last month.

Backers of the new police bill -- including the far-right party of leading presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen -- say a new law presuming police acted in self-defence is necessary to avoid officers being automatically suspected of using disproportionate force.

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