French police use tear gas as cost-of-living protests continue

French police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in several cities Saturday as nationwide protests over the cost of living continued, while Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 135 people had been arrested and authorities had seized prohibited items. Nuñez said there had been no major incident nationwide so far. The arrest total, seizures and assessment were his account. Authorities had mobilized up to 70,000 security personnel, according to the interior ministry, amid concerns about a repeat of violence during protests the previous weekend. In Lyon, police dispersed about 150 people with tear gas. An Agence France-Presse journalist reported seeing some participants briefly try to block a road. Accounts placed the gathering either inside a restricted area or at its boundary; the precise location was not established. Demonstrations on public streets in a broad central zone had been prohibited for the day under a prefectural order. Police and organizers gave different estimates of attendance at a protest in Orleans against a congress of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party: police counted 11,000 people, while organizers estimated 26,000. The gathering also included...