Demonstrations: Many controls at the start of the protest day in France

Paris. At the beginning of the day of protests in France, the police checked numerous people. The Paris police prefecture said it had confiscated many prohibited items and arrested several suspects in 635 checks. It is carrying out “massive controls”, especially in train stations and public transport, “to deter those who want to come to the capital with bad intentions”. According to initial information at lunchtime, the situation in Paris was “calm”.

Due to fears of riots and looting like the one that took place last weekend, there were bans on gatherings in certain zones and curfews in several cities. In Nice, where all gatherings are banned according to the prefecture, police forces, gendarmes and special forces were deployed in the city center.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez visited security forces in Paris in the morning and announced on the X platform that a large contingent of emergency services had been mobilized. “We are ready,” he wrote. He had previously announced the deployment of 70,000 civil servants.

Trade unions were outraged by the fact that the demonstration they had registered in Paris was moved from the prefecture to the outskirts of the city. The administrative court confirmed the route in an emergency decision. At midday the first demonstrators arrived at the Porte d'Italie, from where the protest procession was scheduled to start at 2 p.m.

In the tense situation in the country, particular attention was paid to the city of Orléans, where the party conference of the right-wing national Rassemblement National (RN) is taking place this weekend. According to the prefecture, 11,000 people gathered there at lunchtime to protest. 3,000 security and rescue workers were mobilized over the weekend.