France is preparing for a third consecutive weekend of protests over living costs and education, with police deploying 70,000 officers and restricting demonstrations in Paris.
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France is preparing for a third consecutive weekend of protests over living costs and education, with Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez warning of a “very high risk” of disorder, especially after dark on Halloween.
The government said it will deploy 70,000 police and gendarmes and reroute a Paris march away from the city centre to follow a single route along the capital’s outer boulevards, from Porte de Bagnolet to Porte de Charenton.
Nuñez’s office said unions and student groups challenged the restrictions in court, but those efforts were unsuccessful. President Emmanuel Macron also said marches would stay out of city centres to help protect shops.
Paris police barred entry to Place de la Republique and Les Halles, areas that saw rioting and looting on Oct. 17, with access restricted from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Unaccompanied minors face a separate 9 p.m. curfew around the Champs-Elysees. A Paris court suspended an earlier minors’ curfew on Wednesday, describing it as a serious and illegal infringement of freedom of movement.
Authorities said the movement began with high school students protesting school conditions and later broadened into anger over living costs. They counted about 550,000 protesters nationwide on Oct. 17, including riots that looted hundreds of shops, and 410,000 last Saturday when rallies were largely peaceful but police made more than 1,300 arrests.
Outside France, a German youth initiative called “Gen Z regelt” urged protests in some 30 cities “for education, health, climate protection and an affordable life,” and against any return of military conscription. Organizers said more than 140,000 people had signed up online, and Berlin police expected about 10,000 people at the Brandenburg Gate.
In Spain, Catalan police planned to activate their highest-level alert after an anonymous TikTok network called Blocus urged new gatherings. Rioting in Barcelona last Saturday resulted in about 130 arrests, mostly of minors. Italian police were also on alert after clashes in Milan, Turin and Bologna, and calls to protest circulated on TikTok in Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Portugal.
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