Video: Tens of Thousands Protest in Paris Against Soaring Cost of Living

PARIS (Sputnik) - Thousands of protesters have gathered in Paris on Sunday to take part in a march against skyrocketing living costs and climate inaction of the government, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

The Sunday protest was called by Jean-Luc Melenchon's the France Unbowed party and other left-wing parties, including Europe Ecology - The Greens and the Socialist Party, along with several French unions and associations.

The march began with a walkout from the Place de la Nation square at around 3 p.m. local time (13:00 GMT) and was controlled by police cordons.

The activists demand higher wages and social benefits, windfall taxes on energy companies, capping electricity bills and investment in ecological projects. Calls against soaring fuel and food prices, and the controversial pension reform could also be heard at the march.

"We are here to save the French from poverty. [French President Emmanuel] Macron is trying to destroy our country. He is trying to destroy all public goods. It is obvious to us that from November the prices of all fuel, gasoline and diesel will exceed 3 euros, so we have to act. Otherwise we will soon have nothing to eat this winter," one of the activists of the Yellow Vests movement told the Sputnik correspondent.

Some participants shared their resentment over France's increased military support to Ukraine.

"Not only has France supplied Kiev with Caesar howitzers, but it also invites the French to train Ukrainian soldiers. This is too much, this is outrageous. The United States is trying to drag us into a war that is not even ours," another protester said.

A Sputnik correspondent reported that the demonstration was controlled by police cordons, with protesters marching peacefully until radical youth from the black bloc movement joined the procession. Aggressive youths were provoking law enforcement by throwing bottles and smoke pellets. The police fired tear gas in response.

Other radical black bloc youths began to smash the windows of banks and snatched phones from journalists to prevent them from recording their actions.

Organizers of the march in Paris claim that as many as 140,000 people joined the action to protest skyrocketing prices and climate inaction of the government, French broadcaster BFMTV reported. According to Parisian police, only 30,000 attended the march.

On October 8, thousands of protesters gathered in Paris, demanding Macron's resignation.

France remains gripped by widespread protest movement amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. The leading French unions announced on Thursday that they were going to hold a nationwide strike on October 18, demanding higher wages and protesting against the government's interference in the social movement of oil employees and encroachment on the right to strike.