The French government is mobilising a massive security operation on Saturday, deploying around 70,000 police officers, including elite counter-terrorism units, water cannon, armoured vehicles, helicopters and drones. The interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, told reporters on Friday: “We are ready tomorrow to be extremely firm and not tolerate anything.” He said social media had carried calls for violence from “ultra-left” groups. “We are not talking about a peaceful, friendly demonstration,” he added.
The decision follows last weekend’s unrest, which the government acknowledged it had “lost control” over. Largely peaceful cost-of-living demonstrations were hijacked by rioters, resulting in rampant violence and looting. In Limoges, the town hall was set on fire and partly destroyed. The justice minister, Gérald Darmanin, said 217 people, half of them first-time offenders, had been jailed since Saturday.
President Emmanuel Macron has called for “the utmost severity” against “acts of delinquency”, blaming the worst violence on “ultra-left” groups seeking to “bring down the republic”. The crisis has caught the government off guard six months before presidential elections.
Authorities have banned or rerouted demonstrations in several cities. The centre of Lyon will be off-limits to protesters. In Paris, a union march along a limited route between the Places de la Bastille and Nation has been authorised. Requests for rallies by France’s main student union, UNEF, and the gilets jaunes movement were refused. UNEF said its rallies would go ahead regardless. Several cultural institutions, including the Louvre, said they would close on Saturday.
Opposition figures and unions criticised the ban. Marylise Léon, general secretary of the CFDT union federation, told TF1 TV the decision was “counterproductive because there is a lot of anger and a demand to be considered and to be listened to”. She added: “It’s not for the president to decide who can legitimately protest.” La France Insoumise, the radical left party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said the government had “crossed the lines that separate a democracy from an authoritarian and police state”, warning the bans would only “generate more chaos”.
Adding to tensions, far-right leader Marine Le Pen is due to host her National Rally party congress in Orléans, drawing thousands of supporters and leftwing, anti-racist opponents. Nuñez was set to visit the city on Friday to inspect security arrangements.
Further stoking disquiet, one person was killed and four others injured, including a 12-year-old girl, in a shooting in the town of Trappes, west of Paris, on Friday. Police said the attack could have been racially motivated.
Broader discontent over declining public services, housing affordability, public sector budget cuts and the spiralling cost of living has triggered protests called for this weekend in Italy, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Albania.