PARIS — France's government is pursuing a two-track strategy to end weeks of nationwide protests. It is deploying tens of thousands of police to contain violence while promising more teachers, an overhaul of university admissions and budget changes to address the grievances behind the unrest.

So far, neither approach has stopped the demonstrations.

Hundreds of thousands of people marched again Saturday across France. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said Sunday that police made 1,314 arrests and that 53 officers were injured. He said the marches "passed off well," but that police later faced "an extremely elevated level of violence" from "ultra-left" groups.

The Interior Ministry estimated turnout at about 410,000 people at roughly 298 protests, including 110,000 in Paris. The CGT union confederation put the national figure near 800,000.

From school blockades to national crisis

The movement began in mid-September, when high school students in the working-class suburbs north of Paris blockaded their schools. They were protesting teacher shortages, overcrowded classes, crumbling buildings and stress over Parcoursup, the country's university admissions system.

The protests spread to cities including Bordeaux, Rennes, Nantes, Lyon, Lille and Marseille. They soon merged with a public-sector strike over the government's 2027 budget, which includes about 54 billion euros ($60.8 billion) in spending cuts and tax measures aimed at reducing France's deficit. Unions say the budget would freeze civil servants' base pay for a fourth straight year.

The movement has since widened into broader anger over the cost of living and inequality, drawing in remnants of the 2018 "yellow vest" movement.

"One student out of two cannot eat........

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