PARIS, France, Oct 23, 2026 (Net) – France will deploy some 70,000
police nationwide as it braces for new protests this weekend after some of
the worst urban violence in years erupted on the sidelines of demonstrations
a week ago, the government said Friday.
President Emmanuel Macron, who according to aides is postponing a visit later
this month to Nigeria and Senegal amid the crisis, held a meeting of his
defence council of top ministers and officials and was to meet security
forces.
He also hosted for the first time representatives of high school pupils,
whose protests over conditions at their schools sparked the movement that has
broadened into a nationwide show of anger against the government at the
rising cost of living.
Some 70,000 security personnel will be deployed on Saturday, Interior
Minister Laurent Nunez said at a press conference in Paris, warning that
calls for violence and looting were circulating on social media.
The protests have come at a critical moment for France six months ahead of
elections to replace Macron, with a new poll underlining far-right candidate
Marine Le Pen as the frontrunner and showing her position has been
strengthened by the latest events.
Adding to tensions, Le Pen is at the weekend due to host her National Rally
(RN) party congress in Orleans, with thousands of supporters expected but
local authorities fearing clashes as opponents head to the city.
Nunez was expected to visit the city Friday to “inspect the security
arrangements” at the request of the prime minister’s office, it said.
At Macron’s meeting with students, “we will present our demands to him —
which remain the same: the state of school infrastructure and an overhaul of
the Parcoursup (university admissions) system,” Nathanael Combary, president
of Renouveau Lyceen (High School Renewal) told AFP ahead of the talks.
Macron’s government has sought to draw a line between the legitimate demands
of protesters and the looting, burning and ransacking that erupted on the
sidelines of protests last Saturday.
In a judicial response of unprecedented firmness, courts have already sent
217 people, half of them first-time offenders, to prison over the events on
Saturday, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
On Thursday, Macron called for “the utmost severity” against “acts of
delinquency”, accusing “ultra-left” groups of having sought to “bring down
the republic” last weekend.
– ‘Police have a responsibility’ –
A fresh wave of demonstrations is expected across France on Saturday, with
authorities stepping up security measures and imposing restrictions on
protests.
In Orleans, between 20,000 and 30,000 people were expected to come out
against Le Pen’s National Rally party, but the gathering will be barred from
the city centre, the prefecture said.
In the southeastern city of Lyon, central areas will also be off-limits to
demonstrators this weekend, while in Paris protesters will only be allowed to
march a limited route between Bastille and Nation squares.
Authorities in Marseille had also banned protests but announced Friday that a
union-organised demonstration would be allowed on an “exceptional basis” —
the only one authorised in the southern Bouches-du-Rhone department.
They also reversed a decision to suspend all public transport in the city on
Saturday. But in the capital, leading museums including the Louvre will be
closed on Saturday while the Art Basel art fair is being cut short.
Some 20 percent more members of the security forces will be deployed this
weekend after heavy criticism of the anticipation and intelligence gathering
of police last week.
“In a country governed by the rule of law, the police have a responsibility
both to ensure that protests can take place peacefully and safely and to
protect the public from violent disorder,” said Eva Cosse, senior Europe
researcher at Human Rights Watch, expressing alarm over reports of children
being severely injured by crowd-control weapons.
The violence has tarnished the image of France ahead of elections that could
be a turning point in its modern history, with the government’s debt pile
also troubling investors.
A new poll by Harris Interactive for M6/RTL made after the violence showed Le
Pen soaring ahead on 33-35 percent in the first round of voting for the
presidential elections.
It predicted that hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon was on course to face
her in the run-off where Le Pen would emerge as an easy winner on some 70
percent of the vote.
