France to deploy 70,000 police on Saturday to prevent fresh unrest
The French government will put about 70,000 police on the streets on Saturday to head off a repeat of last weekend's rioting, which erupted on the edges of cost-of-living protests. Interior minister Laurent Nuñez has promised a firm response.
France will deploy about 70,000 police across the country on Saturday, 24 October, to prevent further civil unrest. Last weekend some of the worst street violence in years broke out on the fringes of cost-of-living protests. The crisis has caught President Emmanuel Macron's government off guard, six months before presidential elections to choose his successor.
Interior minister Laurent Nuñez said on Friday, after a meeting of senior ministers and officials chaired by Macron, that the forces would include elite units normally used for counter-terrorism and hostage rescue. He said social media had carried calls for violence from “ultra-left” groups. The operation adds 10,000 more police and will use water cannon, armoured vehicles, mounted police, helicopters and drones.
What happened last Saturday
Largely peaceful demonstrations were taken over by groups of determined rioters, leading to violence and extensive looting in Paris, Marseille, Lyon and other cities. In Limoges the town hall was set on fire and partly destroyed. The government has admitted it “lost control”. Justice minister Gérald Darmanin said 217 people, half of them first-time offenders, have been jailed since Saturday.
Bans and criticism
Several cities have banned protests or changed their routes. In Paris, a union march was authorised along a limited route between the Places de la Bastille and Nation, but rallies requested by the main student union UNEF and the gilets jaunes movement were refused. UNEF said its events would go ahead regardless. In Marseille, one union demonstration was allowed on an “exceptional basis”. The Louvre and other Paris cultural institutions will close on Saturday.
Union and opposition leaders have criticised the government, and the bans are being challenged in court in several cities. Marylise Léon, general secretary of the CFDT union federation, accused Macron of an abuse of authority. The left-wing La France Insoumise party said the bans would only generate more chaos.
On Friday, one person was killed and four injured, including a 12-year-old girl, in a shooting in Trappes, near Paris; police said it could have been racially motivated. Protests are also expected this weekend in Italy, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Albania.
