Le Pen launches campaign in Orléans

While the france protests filled the streets, the presidential campaign itself began. Marine Le Pen's National Rally held its campaign-launch rally in Orléans on the same day as the cost-of-living demonstrations across the country, turning a day of street protest into a two-front political contest.

The size of the counter-protest outside the rally was immediately disputed. Police put their number at 13,000 while organisers said twice as many participated. Le Pen leads in surveys ahead of the presidential election, giving her party's launch day added weight against a backdrop of anger over prices.

Melenchon: 'every week'

The far left was not at a rally but in the crowd. Jean-Luc Melenchon, the far-left presidential candidate, marched in Paris and warned the president about the movement's staying power: Macron "is going to understand that this is going to repeat itself every week".

The Yellow Vests, for their part, have called for more demonstrations on October 31 for "the freedom to protest".

Six months to the vote

The marches come at a charged moment in the electoral calendar. France goes to the polls in six months to choose a successor to President Emmanuel Macron after 10 years in power. The fuel-price anger driving people onto the streets has a traceable trigger: inflation in France, particularly affecting the cost of fuel, has surged since the start of the Middle East war in February.

The combination - a surging cost of living, an incumbent completing a decade in office and a febrile political atmosphere ahead of the vote in which Le Pen leads in surveys - is what both campaigns spent Saturday trying to harness. The National Rally sought to convert discontent into a launch platform in Orléans; Melenchon marched to bind the far left to a movement he predicts will return weekly.

The day's context

The campaigns were reacting to a day of demonstrations held a week after earlier protests degenerated into street violence. According to the Interior Ministry, police arrested nearly 1,000 people during Saturday's demonstrations. The previous week's rioting had seen public buildings vandalised, hundreds of shops looted and 2,700 people arrested.

• •Demonstrations over the cost of living were held across France on Saturday, one week after the rioting.
• •Nearly 1,000 people were arrested on the day, according to the Interior Ministry.
• •The prior week's disorder left public buildings vandalised, hundreds of shops looted and 2,700 people under arrest.

Against that record, and with the election countdown running, both the Orléans rally and the Paris march treated the streets as the opening ground of the campaign. The next date already set belongs to the movement: October 31.