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The thousands gathered in the French capital have begun walking along the designated 1.5km route from Porte d’Italie to Porte de Vincennes.
The metro trains headed to the 13th arrondisement starting point were packed.
The march has been organised by a coalition of unions, the CGT, CFDT, FSU, and Solidaires, supporting student federations, and there are the flags and banners of these various grooups.
But there are also protesters of all stripes – many young people, but also families, office workers, retirees.
Key events
14m ago
Demonstrations kick off across France's major cities amid heavy security
37m ago
Paris protesters set off on march
1h ago
Marches over pensions in Madrid
1h ago
French police make 135 arrests, interior minister says
1h ago
Fresh protests also under way in Albania
2h ago
French police fire teargas at protesters in Lyon
2h ago
Protest march under way in Orléans
2h ago
Italy bracing for several protests nationwide
3h ago
'Here to support the schoolchildren's demands'
3h ago
Italy police raid homes in Milan ahead of protests
3h ago
Paris protest route moved away from Bastille and pushed back to afternoon
4h ago
Some protest bans overturned in last-minute court challenges
4h ago
Drive-by shooting outside of Paris targeted victims on skin colour
5h ago
Counter-demonstrators expected at Le Pen rally
5h ago
Paris closes 24 metro stations
5h ago
Opening summary
People have also begun marching in the port city of Marseille, France’s second-most populous city. Thousands had gathered for the procession down the Canabière main street.
In Lyon, crowds have set off from Place Jean-Macé, chanting slogans and singing, flanked by rows of police officers. Crowds are also marching in Toulouse and Lille.
Meanwhile protest restrictions remain in place in other cities, where last-minute legal appeals have failed.
In Bordeaux, demonstrators have shown up at the Place de la Bourse despite a city-wide ban and tram cancellations.
“Whether the protest is banned or not, we will support the high school students’ movement and we won’t abandon them. We are parents, we were young once, and we are also workers,” said Brigitte Couderc, general secretary of the CGT-Commerce and Services union in the Gironde region told Le Monde.
In Nice, police said they had ordered the dispersal of a crowd of several hundred people who had gathered at Place Masséna despite all gatherings being banned.
France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, earlier said that there was a turnout of about 35,000 people in marches across the country, compared with 60,000 last Saturday. He said authorities had counted 136 public street actions, down from 264 the previous weekend.
Angelique Chrisafis
My colleague Angelique Chrisafis has been at Place d’Italie in the French capital.
Many cardboard signs held by demonstrators in Paris referenced the dozens of ongoing inquiries into mutilations and injuries by police weapons in the four weeks since high school protests began.
One 21-year-old student from a Paris science faculty that is currently blockaded by demonstrators, said: “We feel in France that we are increasingly living in an authoritarian regime that is trying to stop our democratic right to protest in the street.”
The thousands gathered in the French capital have begun walking along the designated 1.5km route from Porte d’Italie to Porte de Vincennes.
The metro trains headed to the 13th arrondisement starting point were packed.
The march has been organised by a coalition of unions, the CGT, CFDT, FSU, and Solidaires, supporting student federations, and there are the flags and banners of these various grooups.
But there are also protesters of all stripes – many young people, but also families, office workers, retirees.
Thousands of retired people and others also marched in the Spanish capital, Madrid, on Saturday, to demand that state pensions should be protected.
Pensions have become a key battleground ahead of next month’s snap election, with the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, arguing that the conservative opposition Popular party wants to privatise pensions.
Housing and rental costs have also sparked demonstrations in Spain in recent weeks. The September eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her rented apartment in Madrid triggered huge street protests in the capital and elsewhere.
The movement is centered at a tent camp protest that has remained in the capital’s Puerta del Sol square for almost a month.
France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, has said that police have made 135 arrests in relation to the nationwide protests, and seized a variety of weapons.
Weapons confiscated included metal balls, lead pellets, fireworks, slingshots, steel balls, improvised weapons, a katana and airsoft weapons, Nuñez said. He added that, so far, “there has been no major incident”.
An anti-government rally is taking place in the Albanian capital, Tirana, after days of violent unrest in the city.
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