A Day After Renewed Street Clashes in France, Relief and Anxiety Mix

For the French government, there was a fleeting sense of relief on Sunday morning as workers in Paris and other cities hauled away charred trash bins and swept up debris after another day of disorder.

Largely peaceful protests on Saturday ended in the evening with clashes between the police and protesters, but as chaotic as the scenes were, they did not escalate into the wholesale arson and looting that engulfed the country a week earlier. A fortified police presence and widespread arrests kept a lid on vandalism, if not preventing it altogether.

Yet the respite could be short-lived. The huge turnout for the demonstrations — 410,000 people nationwide, according to the interior ministry; 800,000, according to the union organizers — suggested that, far from flagging, the protest movement was gaining momentum. Activists called for another day of protests on Oct. 31.

France remains acutely on edge. The killing of a young man in a shooting spree in a suburb of Paris on Friday has only added to the tensions. The authorities have not fully identified the assailant, who was arrested and is currently under psychiatric observation to determine whether his mental health condition is compatible with continuing his interrogations, according to France’s antiterrorism prosecutor’s office.

President Emmanuel Macron of France denounced the shooting as a “racist terrorist attack” and described it as a “turning point” for the country.

French politics, too, may be nearing a fateful transition. On Sunday, Marine Le Pen, the leader of the main far-right party, officially began her campaign to succeed Mr. Macron as president next spring.

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