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- France 24 - Français
- Mobilisation du 24 octobre : Nuñez salue le déroulé des cortèges, près de 1 000 interpellations
Mobilisation du 24 octobre : Nuñez salue le déroulé des cortèges, près de 1 000 interpellations
- The Times of Israel
- More than 400,000 protest across France, challenging Macron as clashes erupt in Paris
More than 400,000 protest across France, challenging Macron as clashes erupt in Paris

Police Violence Escalates During Mass Protests in France
At least 800,000 people demonstrate nationwide as police make 135 arrests. A protester suffers multiple finger amputations.
Massive protests against the administration of President Emmanuel Macron proceeded peacefully for much of Saturday in several French cities.
RELATED:
Melenchon Urges Macron to Meet Protesters’ Demands Before Leaving Office
Police brutality, however, changed the atmosphere of the day as security forces began cracking down on demonstrators. By 1 p.m., French police had made 135 arrests amid beatings of citizens.
At least 800,000 people demonstrated across France on Oct. 24. However, tensions erupted in Paris and Marseille “during the dispersal of demonstrations,” TF1 Info reported.
The Haute-Garonne prefecture reported that a young man suffered a serious hand injury at the end of a demonstration in the Arenes neighborhood.
🔴️️ À Bordeaux, des manifestants lèvent les mains pour montrer leur caractère inoffensif, la police les charge et les gaze sauvagement
— L'insoumission (@L_insoumission) October 24, 2026
Partout en France, le mouvement populaire s'est amplifié. Les mêmes foules massives ont défilé pour exiger le blocage des prix, l'abrogation… pic.twitter.com/C9Cvuy2MB5
The text reads, “In Bordeaux, protesters raise their hands to show they pose no threat; the police charge at them and brutally gas them. Across France, the grassroots movement has gained further momentum. Massive crowds have taken to the streets to demand a price freeze, the repeal of the Parcoursup system, wage increases, and the inclusion in the budget of the 10 billion euros requested by high school and university students to address their demands.”
The protester was evacuated by firefighters after several of his fingers were amputated. Videos show that a grenade thrown by police caused the young man’s injuries. Authorities said they would conduct an investigation to determine what happened.
At a news briefing, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 136 public order incidents had been recorded nationwide during Saturday’s demonstrations, which have drawn tens of thousands of French people into public spaces across the country so far.
“In Nantes, a police officer chokes a young man and slams his head against a wall, while his partner threatens to fire a less-lethal rubber-ball launcher at residents protesting… the Macron administration continues its repression through police brutality,” L’insoumission reported.
À Grenoble, la sauvagerie policière frappe une fois de plus. La préfète de l’Isère devra rendre des comptes après avoir modifié le tracé du cortège et imposé des couvre-feux à Grenoble.
— Allan Brunon (@allanbrunon) October 24, 2026
Désormais, la police du ministre de la Violence, Laurent Nuñez, balance des gaz lacrymogènes… pic.twitter.com/jMPdskG8rP
The text reads, “In Grenoble, police brutality has struck once again. The Isere prefect will have to answer for her actions, having altered the route of the demonstration and imposed curfews in Grenoble. Now, the police force under the ‘Minister of Violence’—Laurent Nuñez—is deploying tear gas and sowing chaos at a sanctioned demonstration. This government of incompetents is in its death throes.”
The security forces’ aggression against citizens occurred despite several cities authorizing demonstrations for Saturday, including Lille, Strasbourg, Mulhouse, Grenoble, Marseille, Toulouse, Amiens and Paris.
In Lyon, where demonstrations have been banned across a large part of the city center, law enforcement officers dispersed small gatherings using tear gas grenades.
On Friday, Nunez said that 70,000 police officers and gendarmes would be deployed nationwide for the demonstrations. Soldiers from the French army’s Operation Sentinelle would also be mobilized during the protests.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: Xinhua – TF1 Info
- The Guardian - Europe
- Hundreds of thousands march across France in protests over schools and policing
Hundreds of thousands march across France in protests over schools and policing
Almost 1,000 arrested as police charge crowd in Paris and teargas used to stop protesters reaching other city centres
Hundreds of thousands marched in cities across France on Saturday in largely peaceful protests to support schoolchildren’s demands for more teachers and repairs to dilapidated buildings, as Emmanuel Macron faces a social and political crisis in his final months as president.
The prosecutor’s office in the southern city of Nice said on Sunday that 59 people had been taken into police custody, including 11 suspected of belonging to extreme-right groups. They were alleged to have gathered with the intent of committing violence. Some were arrested in two vehicles with masks, gloves, gas sprays and truncheons, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement to public broadcaster FranceInfo.
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© Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP

© Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP

© Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP
- PBS NewsHour - The Latest
- More than 400,000 protest across France, challenging Macron as Paris clashes erupt
More than 400,000 protest across France, challenging Macron as Paris clashes erupt

How a Small Student Protest Spread Across France

© Dimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
- The Guardian - Europe
- Major protests in Paris and other French cities in challenge to Macron – in pictures
Major protests in Paris and other French cities in challenge to Macron – in pictures
Paris march drew 110,000 people, according to police, amid fresh nationwide demonstrations over school funding and cost of living
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© Photograph: Manon Cruz/Reuters

© Photograph: Manon Cruz/Reuters

© Photograph: Manon Cruz/Reuters
Melenchon Urges Macron to Meet Protesters’ Demands Before Leaving Office
French leftist leader warns of weekly demonstrations and an impending general strike.
On Saturday, French radical left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon urged French President Emmanuel Macron to yield to protesters’ demands before leaving office in May 2027.
RELATED:
Two French Protesters Arrested for the Burning of the Limoges Town Hall
“You still have time to give in; afterward, you will have no choice but to leave. Give in and stop wasting our time,” Melenchon, a four-time presidential candidate, said as he marched in the Paris demonstration, which proceeded between Porte d’Italie and Porte de Vincennes.
Melenchon, leader of France Unbowed (LFI), warned Macron that if social demands go unanswered, mobilizations such as the one taking place in France for the second consecutive Saturday “will be repeated every week.”
“This is a very important moment in the history of popular movements in our country,” Melenchon said, convinced that “a general strike is coming” for the authorities.
Victoire totale du mouvement social. La marche s'est rassemblée au nouveau point autorisé et déferle dans le calme sur plus de quatre kilomètres. Les provocations aux désordres du préfet de police et de Lecornu sont un échec total. Pour les autorités, il est temps de céder, sinon… pic.twitter.com/S3d6k2DWf3
— Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) October 24, 2026
Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s text states: “A total victory for the social movement. The march has gathered at the newly authorized location and is proceeding calmly along a route over four kilometers long. The provocations intended to incite disorder—orchestrated by the police prefect and Lecornu—have failed completely. It is time for the authorities to yield; otherwise, they will soon have no choice but to head for the exit.”
Macron must decide whether to yield to the demands now or do so later under much more unpredictable circumstances, Melenchon said. He also accused the French president of adopting an attitude characteristic of an “absolute monarchy” by claiming to be “always right” in his dealings with others.
Melenchon said Macron had taken advantage of the state of shock caused by the racist terrorist attack in Trappes, on the outskirts of Paris, to change the route of the protest through the French capital, creating confusion among demonstrators.
“Everything is being prepared to provoke an explosion” and spark unrest, he said. He questioned the deployment of military personnel to protect public buildings and authorities’ recommendations that business owners turn to private security services, arguing that both measures contribute to rising tensions.
“They are doing absolutely everything to provoke an incident,” Melenchon insisted, urging demonstrators to remain calm, follow union instructions and maintain collective discipline “so that everything goes smoothly.”
Immense cortège à Paris pour demander l’abrogation de parcoursup, 10 milliards pour les lycéens, la hausse du SMIC et des salaires.
— Paul Vannier (@PaulVannierFI) October 24, 2026
Et pour défendre notre liberté de manifester !
Les manœuvres de Nunez et Lecornu ont échoué. pic.twitter.com/eGJIiVKkH8
The text reads, “A massive procession in Paris calling for the repeal of Parcoursup, 10 billion euros for high school students, and an increase in the minimum wage and salaries—as well as the defense of our right to protest! The maneuvers by Nunez and Lecornu have failed.”
For all these reasons, the leftist leader called on the French government to “stop provoking” demonstrators and “adding fuel to the fire,” and to listen to “demands that are not so difficult to meet.”
Melenchon also criticized meetings held during the week between the Macron administration and political parties, describing them as useless and theatrical.
“They live in a bubble, make decisions that have no connection to reality and are not even coordinated among themselves. That is why they are dangerous,” he said.
On Saturday, France faced a second day of nationwide demonstrations called by unions, students and the Yellow Vests movement to protest the rising cost of living and demand more public funding for education.
Following serious incidents on Saturday, Oct. 17, authorities deployed a major security operation on Saturday and banned demonstrations in several French cities, particularly those not organized by unions.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
- France 24 - Français
- Jordan Bardella, réélu président du Rassemblement national avec 98,98 % des voix
Jordan Bardella, réélu président du Rassemblement national avec 98,98 % des voix
Two French Protesters Arrested for the Burning of the Limoges Town Hall
Mayor Guerin attributes the incidents to activists from the Millevaches Plateau, which is home to anti-capitalist communities.
On Saturday, Prosecutor Emilie Abrantes confirmed that two men had been remanded in custody over their alleged involvement in the fire at Limoges City Hall during unrest accompanying protests against the rising cost of living in France.
RELATED:
France Deploys 70,000 Officers Ahead of Protest Rallies
The suspects, ages 34 and 66, are under investigation in a judicial proceeding opened on several charges, including attempted murder of a police officer and destruction of the municipal building. Abrantes, however, did not specify the exact charges attributed to each man.
The first suspect, a 34-year-old man from the Creuse department, was arrested on Tuesday in Bussière-Boffy, in the Haute-Vienne department, with support from RAID, France’s elite police unit.
The construction industry temporary worker and environmental advocate is listed in police records for his alleged links to far-left organizations. He was convicted of an incident involving violence against an officer during an earlier demonstration in Creuse. The second suspect, 66, was arrested on Thursday in Gentioux-Pigerolles, a town in the same department.
On Oct. 17, an arson attack severely damaged Limoges City Hall, a historic building inaugurated in 1883. Videos show individuals breaking windows and forcing open the entrance to the municipal building before entering and setting fire to its interior.
🇫🇷 Multiple cities across France including #Lyon, Grenoble, Nice, Montpellier, Limoges, Tours, Rennes, Brest, Rouen, Lille and Nancy banned all public gatherings this weekend.
— Mahalaxmi Ramanathan (@MahalaxmiRaman) October 24, 2026
In some cities like #Marseille, trade unions received authorisation from the local prefecture to… pic.twitter.com/n5YnMHLQlI
Limoges Mayor Guillaume Guerin described the 34-year-old suspect as the likely mastermind behind the operation and accused far-left factions of being behind the act.
He specifically accused activists based on the Millevaches Plateau, a rural area of about 10,000 inhabitants located between the departments of Corrèze, Creuse and Haute-Vienne.
The area has been known for decades for attracting environmentalist, anarchist, and anti-capitalist communities. The region has been the scene of other acts of sabotage claimed in the past, including the burning of vehicles belonging to electricity company Enedis in Limoges in 2020 and the destruction of a telecommunications antenna in Haute-Vienne in 2021.
In April, the courts convicted the father of the younger of the two men jailed over the Limoges City Hall fire for those acts. The man, about 70, is known for his ties to anarchist circles and his past as a Basque independence activist in the 1980s.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
France’s Unrest Exposes a New Front in Russia’s Information War Against Europe
The violence accompanying France’s October protests has revealed how foreign influence networks can exploit domestic grievances to undermine governments and European support for Ukraine. New evidence suggests Russian-linked operations were active before the riots, raising questions about whether information manipulation is moving beyond propaganda towards the mobilisation of political unrest.
France’s violent protests have exposed a vulnerability in European security that conventional policing cannot easily address: the ability of foreign information networks to exploit domestic political crises, amplify social divisions and transform legitimate grievances into instruments of geopolitical pressure.
President Emmanuel Macron has acknowledged foreign manipulation of information surrounding the disturbances of 17–18 October but insists there is no evidence that foreign actors organised the violence itself. His assessment reflects the evidence currently available, although new investigations indicate that Russian-linked networks were actively exploiting the protest movement weeks before the worst disorder began.
On 24 October, France deployed approximately 70,000 police officers and gendarmes to prevent further violence. Yet the security operation addresses only the physical consequences of a crisis whose online dimension extends across national borders.
Russia’s operations began before the riots
An investigation published on 22 October by Alliance4Europe provides evidence that Russian-linked information networks were exploiting French discontent well before the disturbances.
Researchers examined 547,471 posts and articles across nine languages. They identified 639 coordinated messages attributed with high confidence to Russia’s Doppelgänger operation, generating approximately 7.4 million views in the six weeks preceding 17 October.
The campaign used genuine concerns about living costs and public expenditure to promote a particular political argument: money allocated to Ukraine was being taken from European citizens.
This was not a random selection of grievances. France’s budget difficulties, public-service pressures and disagreements over defence expenditure provided material through which Moscow could seek to weaken support for Kyiv.
The researchers found that the operation targeted pro-European and pro-Ukraine politicians across the political spectrum. It praised selected proposals associated with Jean-Luc Mélenchon while also promoting nationalist narratives, illustrating a strategy driven less by ideological consistency than by opposition to existing European policies.
From manipulating opinion to encouraging mobilisation
An earlier investigation by EK Strategies, published on 8 October, identified an additional development.
Russian-linked channels were not merely commenting on existing demonstrations. They were circulating protest dates, identifying organisers and encouraging French audiences to follow the example of demonstrators in Germany.
On 28 September, the International Reporters network published an appeal urging French audiences to take to the streets. Other channels subsequently reproduced information about planned school blockades and demonstrations.
In one instance, a channel identified as Gavroche published rhetoric encouraging an attack on France’s Education Ministry.
Such activity goes beyond retrospective propaganda. It attempts to influence participation and behaviour while events are developing. Nevertheless, evidence that a network encouraged protests does not establish that it controlled the organisers or directed subsequent violence.
The original demonstrations arose from domestic grievances over schools, prices and government policy. The significance of the foreign activity lies in attempts to redirect and intensify an existing movement.
How France’s crisis was rewritten abroad
Once violence erupted, the information campaign acquired an international audience.
Alliance4Europe found that claims blaming migrants or Islam for the disturbances appeared in approximately one in 33 French-language posts, compared with nearly one in five English-language posts.
False allegations that immigrants had burned Limoges town hall circulated substantially more frequently in English than in French.
The same report identified 1,018 articles distributed through 28 websites associated with the Russian Pravda network. Their rapid republication across languages enabled a common narrative to reach audiences far beyond France.
The operation also presents a longer-term technological problem. Repeated publication of manipulated accounts can contaminate material subsequently retrieved or reproduced by artificial-intelligence systems, allowing false narratives to persist beyond the original campaign.
The political effects were visible when President Donald Trump and other foreign leaders portrayed France’s unrest principally through immigration and cultural conflict.
Speaking in Qatar on 21 October, Macron rejected these portrayals and criticised the circulation of fabricated AI-generated images. His remarks identified foreign manipulation after the riots but stopped short of alleging foreign responsibility for their organisation.
The Heritage Foundation and transatlantic networks
The transcript raises a more substantial allegation: that the American Heritage Foundation and Russia’s FSB have participated in a coordinated effort to destabilise France.
There are documented connections between the Heritage Foundation and political institutions associated with Hungary’s former prime minister Viktor Orbán.
A 2026 investigation into Hungarian-funded international influence networks established that the Danube Institute had channelled substantial public funding towards foreign researchers and commentators. The institute also maintained a formal relationship with Heritage.
Heritage has acknowledged its cooperation with Hungarian conservative institutions but denied receiving funding or direction from foreign governments.
These relationships demonstrate the development of transatlantic political networks capable of circulating common ideas about sovereignty, migration and European integration.
They do not establish operational cooperation with Russian intelligence. Nor has credible evidence emerged connecting Heritage to the organisation or financing of France’s October riots. Ideological convergence, institutional cooperation and participation in a clandestine operation require separate evidential assessments.
The implications for European security
The European Union’s response has exposed a regulatory problem.
Under the EU’s Digital Services Act, major online platforms must address systemic risks arising from their services, including the amplification of illegal content and threats to public security.
On 23 October, the French government announced enhanced cooperation with digital platforms. More than 100 priority reports had been submitted ahead of the weekend demonstrations, approximately half resulting in account suspensions.
These measures targeted unlawful online activity, particularly incitement to violence and looting. They did not constitute findings that the suspended accounts belonged to foreign intelligence networks.
The European Commission has likewise refrained from activating emergency measures under the Digital Services Act without sufficient evidence connecting foreign manipulation to the violence.
The broader security concern is that foreign operations can exploit the interval between the emergence of social unrest and the establishment of reliable information about its causes.
Russia need not organise an entire protest movement to advance its strategic interests. By amplifying domestic grievances, promoting hostility towards support for Ukraine and circulating distorted accounts internationally, it can attempt to convert France’s internal political difficulties into pressure on European policy.
With France approaching its 2027 presidential election, these operations warrant continuing scrutiny. The central investigative question is no longer simply whether foreign networks spread false information after violence occurred, but whether their activities before and during demonstrations materially influenced mobilisation, radicalisation or political responses.
The evidence currently demonstrates organised manipulation and attempts at amplification. Establishing direct responsibility for violence would require a further evidential step, involving financial records, communications, operational instructions or connections with identifiable perpetrators.
France’s experience illustrates how contemporary information warfare can operate within a democratic society without necessarily directing events on the ground. Its immediate objective may be to alter the political interpretation of a crisis; its longer-term consequence may be to influence the policies adopted in response.
What Happens if Trump Doesn’t Like the Midterm Results?

© The New York Times
- The Times of Israel
- France deploys thousands of police, restricts Paris march as it braces for new demonstrations
France deploys thousands of police, restricts Paris march as it braces for new demonstrations

France Deploys 70,000 Officers Ahead of Protest Rallies
France mobilizes 70,000 police and gendarmes amid fears of renewed unrest, while authorities restrict demonstrations and tighten security.
France has deployed 70,000 police officers and gendarmes ahead of nationwide demonstrations on Saturday, with authorities warning of a heightened risk of unrest after vandalism and looting damaged about 3,000 businesses the previous week.
RELATED: France Reports 855 Arrests in Paris After Protests
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu warned late Friday that the threat remained high, particularly from radical far-left groups and criminal elements operating alongside demonstrations called by trade unions, students and the Yellow Vest movement.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced a large-scale security operation to prevent further violence and looting.
“We will show no mercy to looters and troublemakers,” Nuñez declared. He has faced criticism from the left over police tactics and from the right for failing to prevent the previous week’s unrest.
France to mobilise 70,000 security forces for Saturday protest, interior minister says https://t.co/ok4e8kEy5t https://t.co/ok4e8kEy5t
— Reuters World (@ReutersWorld) October 23, 2026
Authorities have banned gatherings in numerous cities and restricted the routes of other demonstrations on security grounds, prompting criticism from trade unions and human rights organizations.
In major cities, trade union demonstrations were authorized on Saturday only in Paris, Marseille, Strasbourg, Lille, Mulhouse, Grenoble, Toulouse and Amiens.
In Paris, a last-minute change to the union march’s route sparked a dispute between police officials and organizers. Authorities cited the heightened threat following a racist attack on the outskirts of the capital the previous day as they redirected the march from Place de la Nation to Place d’Italie, keeping it away from the city center.
Several museums in the capital, including the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, will remain closed, as will the nearby Palace of Versailles. A nighttime curfew in the areas around Place de la République and Les Halles will also remain in force until Monday.
Banks and businesses in central Paris were boarding up shopfronts and windows late Friday and early Saturday in anticipation of possible vandalism, according to observations by Spanish news agency EFE.
Security concerns also extend to Orléans, about 130 kilometers (81 miles) south of Paris, where the far-right National Rally (RN) is holding a congress to formally launch Marine Le Pen’s presidential candidacy, roughly six months before the election.
Authorities estimated that 11,000 people took part in a counter-demonstration in Orléans on Saturday against Le Pen’s party. Organized in opposition to racism, fascism and imperialism, the march proceeded peacefully in a festive atmosphere, according to EFE.

Protesters chanted slogans including “Macron resign, Le Pen to prison” and sang the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, as well as the Spanish-language protest song “The People United Will Never Be Defeated.”
Authorities deployed about 3,000 officers in Orléans to prevent clashes between demonstrators and attendees at the RN congress. The local prefecture authorized Saturday’s march but banned a separate demonstration planned for Sunday.
The security measures reflect the authorities’ efforts to prevent further disorder while allowing some demonstrations to proceed. Restrictions on public gatherings and the deployment of thousands of officers have shaped preparations for Saturday’s rallies across France.
Fusillade meurtrière dans les Yvelines : la garde à vue du suspect prolongée
Storefronts close as police in Paris fire tear gas and water cannons on protesters

NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP via Getty Images
- France and other countries across Europe are weathering another weekend of protests.
- In Paris, major tourist landmarks and storefronts shuttered for the day.
- The French interior ministry upped its police presence and deployed 70,000 personnel to the streets.
As France grapples with another weekend of cost-of-living protests, some of its most famous streets and landmarks are boarded up.
On Saturday, protesters took to the streets in major cities across France, including Paris and Marseille.
Though police in riot gear deployed tear gas and water cannons to disperse the demonstrations, the looting and rioting seen during last week's protests did not materialize.
In a statement, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said that as of 7:30 p.m. local time, authorities had made about 1,000 arrests.

NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP via Getty Images
Last weekend, student-led cost-of-living protests devolved in some places into violent riots and looting.
This weekend, the interior ministry increased its police presence, deploying some 70,000 officers across the country on Saturday. The protests drew support from various groups and organizations, including the gilets jaunes, or yellow vests.
On Saturday morning, military officers and a multipurpose intervention vehicle could be seen positioned outside Paris' National Assembly building.

Thibaud MORITZ / AFP via Getty Images
In Marseille, police deployed tear gas and water cannons to break up protests. Videos from the scene showed lines of police charging protesters.

Sameer AL-DOUMY / AFP via Getty Images
In the French capital on Saturday, thousands of officers largely prevented looting by keeping protesters to a predetermined parade route.
Videos showed demonstrations descending into melees as officers attempted to disperse crowds with tear gas and batons.

Luc Auffret/Anadolu via Getty Images
Luxury stores including Dior, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and Moncler all have stores on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées.
Some 1,500 businesses were targeted in last weekend's vandalism, said Alexandre Bompard, the CEO of Carrefour, one of France's largest supermarket chains.

Luc Auffret/Anadolu via Getty Images
Business leaders, including Thierry Guibert, CEO of Lacoste, and Nicolas Houzé, executive chairman of Galeries Lafayette, all spoke out in the aftermath of last weekend's damage.
"We cannot allow violence to destroy what generations have put so much energy into building," Guibert wrote on X.

Mouneb Taim/Anadolu via Getty Images
Among the areas targeted in last weekend's violence in Paris were the Marais shopping district and the Place de la République.
Speaking to Business Insider's correspondent, Nathan Rennolds, last weekend, one shopkeeper in Paris said looters had "taken everything."

Wu Huiwo/Xinhua via Getty Images
In a notice on its website, the Louvre says the museum would be closed on Saturday and all reservations would be reimbursed. The Louvre closed its doors earlier this week after student protests blocked the entrances.
The Grand Palais and Musée d'Orsay are also closed for the day.
In an update issued on Thursday, the US Embassy in France warned Americans to avoid demonstrations and said curfews across the country, including in some Paris neighborhoods, might continue. It also advised Americans in Paris for the NFL game on Sunday, October 25, to exercise caution.

Muhammed Said Tako/Anadolu via Getty Images
Protests are also expected in countries including Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Albania. Police in Tirana, Albania's capital, deployed tear gas against anti-government student protesters on Saturday.
France Deploys 70,000 Police as New Protests Trigger Clashes and Court Battles
French authorities have imposed extensive restrictions on demonstrations following last weekend’s violence. Courts have overturned some bans, while unions have accepted a last-minute change to the Paris protest route.
French police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in Lyon on Saturday morning, 24 October, as 70,000 police officers and gendarmes were deployed nationwide to prevent a repetition of the violence and looting that accompanied last weekend’s mass protests.
In Paris, trade unions agreed to a revised demonstration route after the administrative court rejected their challenge to a last-minute police order. The march will proceed from Porte d’Italie to Porte de Vincennes, rather than between Bastille and Nation as originally agreed, with the procession scheduled to begin at 2pm.
Elsewhere, emergency judicial decisions have complicated the government’s security arrangements. Courts have suspended restrictions in Limoges and several municipalities around Marseille, while other cities remain subject to extensive bans on public gatherings.
The developments follow last weekend’s nationwide unrest, when approximately 550,000 people demonstrated against rising living costs, deteriorating public services and conditions in French schools. Violence erupted in several cities, leaving businesses looted, public buildings damaged and police officers injured.
Security operation on an unprecedented scale
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has ordered the deployment of 10,000 additional officers compared with 17 October. The operation includes specialist police units, armoured vehicles, helicopters and water cannon.
According to the government’s official security instructions, prefects must examine proposed demonstration routes, assess the reliability of organisers and take preventive measures where there is evidence of a risk to public order.
The authorities are particularly concerned about organised groups exploiting otherwise peaceful demonstrations to attack commercial premises and government buildings.
Security services expect between 400,000 and 500,000 people to participate in Saturday’s mobilisation. The government has warned that calls for renewed violence and looting have circulated online.
The previous weekend’s disturbances resulted in thousands of arrests. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said 217 people had already received prison sentences, with approximately half described as first-time offenders.
Courts challenge sweeping restrictions
The government’s measures have prompted an increasingly contentious legal dispute over the constitutional protection of public demonstrations.
The French Human Rights League has challenged restrictions in several cities, including Brest, Quimper, Caen, Marseille, Lille and Montpellier. It argues that extensive prohibitions interfere with freedom of assembly, expression and movement.
In Marseille, negotiations between local authorities and trade unions resulted in permission for a demonstration along an agreed route through the city. A separate administrative court decision subsequently suspended parts of the wider departmental ban, allowing gatherings in Gardanne, Istres, Martigues, Miramas and Tarascon.
The administrative court in Limoges also suspended restrictions on gatherings of more than ten people in the city centre and overturned an associated curfew.
In Lyon, however, restrictions remained in force across a large central area. Police dispersed approximately 150 demonstrators near Lyon III University shortly before 11am after participants blocked traffic close to the prohibited perimeter.
Macron faces a constitutional and political challenge
President Emmanuel Macron has argued that protecting public order must take priority following the destruction witnessed on 17 October.
His suggestion on Thursday that demonstrations not organised by recognised trade unions should generally be prohibited prompted legal challenges from opposition parties and civil liberties organisations.
In a ruling delivered on 23 October, the Conseil d’État rejected challenges to Macron’s remarks, finding that they did not themselves constitute a binding nationwide prohibition. The court nevertheless reaffirmed that prefects must assess individual demonstrations according to the circumstances and risks involved.
The ruling leaves local restrictions subject to judicial scrutiny rather than providing the government with unrestricted authority to prohibit protests.
Meanwhile, the movement’s original demands remain unresolved. What began with secondary-school students protesting against staff shortages, overcrowding and educational conditions has expanded into a broader mobilisation involving trade unions, university students and Yellow Vest campaigners.
Macron met representatives of secondary-school students on Friday, but participants subsequently called for demonstrations to continue until concrete proposals were presented.
Growing pressure ahead of the presidential election
The renewed mobilisation comes six months before France’s presidential election, in which Macron cannot seek a third consecutive term.
Political tensions are also evident in Orléans, where thousands of demonstrators gathered on Saturday to oppose the National Rally’s weekend party congress. Authorities deployed additional security personnel and restricted the location of the protest.
For the government, the immediate objective is to prevent another outbreak of large-scale violence. For unions and civil liberties organisations, the dispute increasingly concerns the conditions under which public protest may legitimately be restricted.
As EU Today reported ahead of Saturday’s demonstrations, the central legal question is whether prohibitions are proportionate to identifiable security risks.
The courts have now begun answering that question differently across France, leaving the authorities to enforce a patchwork of restrictions as the country’s social and political confrontation continues.
- The Guardian - Europe
- Hundreds of thousands march in France as protests take place across Europe – as it happened
Hundreds of thousands march in France as protests take place across Europe – as it happened
French police have made 1,000 arrests and Italian officers have raided homes in Milan, with protests also taking place in Spain and Albania
Jesse, 40, a charity worker from the north of Paris, had turned out for the street march.
She said: “I’m so angry. I’m here to support schoolchildren’s demands for better conditions. I’m so proud of them and we have to stand together.”
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© Photograph: Abdul Saboor/Reuters

© Photograph: Abdul Saboor/Reuters

© Photograph: Abdul Saboor/Reuters
Looting Left Damage and Fear on Paradise Street in Marseille

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