The French Interior Ministry announced on Sunday that police had arrested 1,314 people during protests across France over the weekend.
The ministry reported that 53 police officers were injured in clashes that broke out on the sidelines of the demonstrations.
The arrests followed violent incidents in major French cities during mass protests on Saturday, organized to denounce the rising cost of living. The demonstrations marked the second consecutive weekend of unrest in the country.
Against this backdrop, protest groups and unions have called for further demonstrations to maintain pressure on the government.
Union and labor leaders have called for more protests next Saturday and a nationwide strike on November 5, saying dissatisfaction over low wages, rising living costs and deteriorating public services extends far beyond the student movement that began last month.
Muriel Gilber, co-president of the Solidaires trade union, told BFM TV, "We see an accumulation of anger." She added that the demands of students, workers, firefighters and other groups are converging.
"We are calling on people to take to the streets next Saturday," she continued.
A union representing teachers announced that it would join the demonstrations on October 31, while the CGT union said a decision on its participation would be made in the coming days.
The Yellow Vest movement, which emerged in 2018 to protest fuel taxes, has also called for mass marches next Saturday, including sit-ins outside municipal and National Assembly buildings.
The government has begun talks with unions and student representatives in an attempt to defuse the crisis, but protest leaders say the measures proposed so far are insufficient.
Police unions said on Sunday that they lacked sufficient personnel to maintain the high level of deployment that helped contain disturbances to sporadic clashes in several cities, including Paris and Marseille, on Saturday.
More than 400,000 people demonstrated across France on Saturday against the high cost of living, according to the Interior Ministry, as police used tear gas to prevent demonstrators in several cities from advancing toward their centers.
The Interior Ministry said on Saturday afternoon that around 410,000 people had taken part in nationwide demonstrations, including 110,000 in Paris. The figure was slightly lower than the previous week, when 550,000 people took to the streets.
The General Confederation of Labor (CGT), for its part, reported that around 800,000 people had marched or gathered across France, including 250,000 in Paris.
The wave of protests brought together high school students, unions and Yellow Vest activists, coming just six months before the presidential elections.
Authorities confirmed that around 70,000 police officers and gendarmes had been deployed, an increase of approximately 20% compared with the previous week.
Anger toward President Emmanuel Macron remains widespread following his government's ban on non-union demonstrations deemed "illegal" and the removal of all demonstrators from city centers.
