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France is on high alert ahead of nationwide protests on Saturday, a week after some of the country’s worst unrest in decades, according to BBC World.
Restrictions have been imposed on demonstrations, but hundreds of thousands of people are expected to gather in Paris and other cities for a second round of protests organised by students, trade unions and broader anti-government groups.
The Interior Ministry plans to deploy 70,000 police officers. Opposition parties had accused the government of failing to anticipate the scale of the unrest on 17 October.
“We will not let anything go unchallenged,” Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said. He added that authorities would be “uncompromising” with vandals, looters and those committing violence. Nuñez said social media had carried numerous calls for violence from the “far left and radical extreme left”, separate from the planned demonstrations.
Hundreds of people have been jailed for vandalism, arson and looting following expedited court hearings in recent days.
President Emmanuel Macron met representatives of high-school students on Friday. They said he had made clear commitments, but urged students to “continue to mobilise”.
Earlier this week, Macron decreed that only demonstrations organised by recognised trade unions would be allowed on Saturday. Several major cities, including Lyon, Nice and Montpellier, have announced blanket bans on gatherings.
Organisers have nevertheless planned hundreds of demonstrations of varying sizes across the country. After a week in which some cities, including parts of the capital, were under partial curfews, rules on protests differ from one city to another.
Some mayors have imposed broad bans, while others have allowed demonstrations registered with authorities. In Marseille, an order barring all protests was quickly reversed to permit a trade union-organised march.
In Paris, a march organised by a student trade union and backed by labour groups has been restricted to a route outside the city centre. Preparations for possible unrest are under way in some of the capital’s best-known areas nonetheless.
The Louvre, Orsay and Picasso museums will be closed on Saturday. A scheduled home match for football club “PSG” has been moved to Monday, and some businesses have boarded up their windows in anticipation of further looting.
The student-led protest movement has broadened into a wider anti-government mobilisation, with demonstrators associated with a revived “gilet jaunes” — or yellow-vest — movement expected to join protests across France.
The movement, which has attracted support from both left and right, led major disruptive demonstrations during Macron’s first term. A website associated with the group listed more than 500 planned demonstrations and about 200 other actions for Saturday, and called for Macron to resign.
In its online call to action, the group said it “refuse[s] to add our voices to the chorus of outrage” over the violence on 17 October and accused police of attacking protesters.
France is still recovering from last week’s unrest, during which police were greatly outnumbered by protesters and rioters, shops were looted and buildings set on fire. Among the most prominent damaged sites was the ornate 19th-century town hall in Limoges.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Friday that 232 people had been imprisoned for their role in the 17 October riots and more than 1,100 had appeared in court. About 260 of the cases involved “charges of organised gang activity”, he added.
Darmanin has instructed prosecutors to seek punitive measures against people convicted of looting or attacking police officers. These could include bans on taking part in demonstrations, loss of voting rights and restrictions on access to social media.
Public disillusionment is high amid rising living-cost pressures and warnings that a future government may need to make deep spending cuts to finance growing levels of debt.
The unrest has also unfolded amid political polarisation, as France approaches what could be its most divisive and unpredictable election period in a generation. Macron is due to leave office next spring, and polls suggest a candidate from his centrist movement may not reach the May runoff between the two leading contenders.
That could leave voters choosing between the hard-right National Rally and the radical-left La France Insoumise, also known as France Unbowed. Figures from both parties have blamed Macron and his ministers for the disorder, as his centrist party has struggled to form functioning governments and pass legislation.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader and presidential candidate of La France Insoumise, has criticised what he described as heavy-handed policing and accused Macron of “destroying the republican state” through restrictions. He called on supporters to join Saturday’s protests, as they had the previous week, before condemning the rioting that followed.
A two-day National Rally conference in Orléans, about 120 km (75 miles) south of Paris, could become a flashpoint on Saturday. Left-wing groups are expected to travel to the city, where thousands of members of the hard-right party are due to gather to hear leader Marine Le Pen speak.
The city’s mayor warned this week that the expected turnout in Orléans was “unprecedented”. Thousands of police will be deployed to manage possible clashes, and public transport will be suspended, the mayor said.
Opinion polls suggest Le Pen may have her strongest chance yet of becoming president as she runs for a fourth time, despite a court finding her guilty earlier this year of embezzling EU funds. She denies wrongdoing and is appealing the verdict.
