In Lyon, the city center is once again deserted and barricaded in preparation for Act III of the demonstrations against the high cost of living. Unlike Saturday 24, a demonstration was authorized by the prefecture after several discussions with the unions.
The procession will set off at 2 p.m. from the Manufacture des tabacs (Lyon 3rd) to join Jean Macé. A route which will avoid the city center of Lyon. However, calls for gatherings have been spotted on social networks in other parts of the city, raising fears of excesses. Also a perimeter prohibiting demonstrations and gatherings on public roads has been renewed in a very large part of the city from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
This ban will continue throughout Halloween night on the Lyon peninsula. In addition, a curfew will be introduced for minors from 11 p.m. in this part of Lyon.
Justin Boche, Le Figaro Lyon.
Several cities have decided to maintain a curfew this weekend. The Paris police headquarters on Friday ordered a curfew in the areas of Place de la République and Châtelet-Les Halles for the nights of Saturday to Sunday then from Sunday to Monday from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Curfews for unaccompanied minors introduced from October 19 until Thursday morning in Lille and three other northern towns (Douai, Denain and Wattignies), are reintroduced from Friday evening to Sunday morning, this time also including Valenciennes and Marly.
In Lyon, “taking into account the risks of excesses during the evening of October 31 in connection with the calls for mobilization circulating on social networks and which refer to the Halloween party”, the movement of minors unaccompanied by their legal guardian or an adult, as well as their presence on the public highway will be prohibited from Saturday October 31, 2026 at 11 p.m. to Sunday November 1 at 6 a.m., within the restricted perimeter of part of the city. peninsula.
Avignon is also concerned. “A curfew for minors unaccompanied by an adult in the intramuros and in the Aushopping, Capsud and Mistral7 commercial zones from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. on the night of October 31 to November 1,” writes the prefecture on Facebook.
In Bouches-du-Rhône, a curfew targeting minors is in place from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. in certain areas of Marseille, Aubagne, Cabriès and Les Pennes-Mirabeau.
In Isère, a general curfew will be ordered in Grenoble. “From Saturday October 31, 11 p.m. to Sunday November 1, 6 a.m. in several areas of downtown Grenoble and the commercial areas of Grand Place (Grenoble), Comboire (Échirolles) and Neyrpic (Saint-Martin d’Hères).”
A curfew for unaccompanied minors was ordered on Saturday evening from 8 p.m. in the city center of Bordeaux, as well as a ban on groupings.
In Tours, “the movement of people will be prohibited” in several neighborhoods from Saturday October 31 at 7 p.m. to Sunday November 1 at 5 a.m., the Indre-et-Loire prefecture said on X.
La Fage, the federation of general student associations in France, denounced “a new obstacle to the right to demonstrate” after the ban on the initial Parisian route by the Council of State on Saturday.
“We denounce a new obstruction of the right to demonstrate, a serious challenge to our right to express our demands and more broadly a voluntary endangerment of processions,” writes FAGE in a reaction sent to AFP.
“The inter-union (youth) will meet to decide on the follow-up to the mobilization,” continues the federation.
In an order consulted by AFP, the Council of State on Saturday annulled the decision of the Paris administrative court authorizing the Bastille/Nation route proposed by the organizers of the main demonstration on Saturday, which had been banned by the police headquarters. The route validated for this risky day is that proposed by the prefecture, from Porte de Bagnolet to Porte de Charenton, on the outskirts of the capital.
“The ban on this route and the proposal of an alternative route (...) making it possible to preserve the full freedom to demonstrate as well as the visibility of demands on a secure route until its dispersal and, through better allocation of security forces, to limit the risks of abuses on the fringes of the gathering (...) appears necessary and is neither inappropriate nor disproportionate,” argues the Council of State.
More than 40 Paris metro stations will be closed on Saturday in several areas of the center and east of the capital. The first closures will take place from 5:30 a.m. in the Champs-Élysées, Concorde, Invalides and National Assembly districts, according to information available Friday evening on the RATP website.
From 9 a.m., restrictions will extend to several stations located along the route of the event and in major transfer hubs, notably around Bastille, République, Strasbourg-Saint-Denis and the Opéra.
New closures are planned for the end of the morning then from midday in eastern Paris, around Nation and Porte Dorée, as well as on the left bank, in the areas of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Odéon and the Latin Quarter.
Traffic will also be disrupted on the tram network from 11 a.m., with interruptions on sections of lines T3a and T3b around Porte de Vincennes. In the evening, the Châtelet and Les Halles stations will in turn close from 8:00 p.m., while traffic will be interrupted between Châtelet and Hôtel de Ville.
Self-service bike and scooter operators have also taken preventive measures.
Tens of thousands of young Germans are expected on Saturday October 31 in several large cities across the country to demand in particular more resources for education, a movement inspired by French demonstrations against a backdrop of fear of violence. At the call of a collective called “Gen Z regelt” (“Generation Z takes care of it”, in reference to young people born between 1995 and 2012), some 160,000 people have so far registered online to demonstrate in around thirty cities, including Berlin, Frankfurt (center) and Cologne (west).
On its site, “GenZ regelt” protests against the poverty of schools, the high cost of living and the possible reintroduction of military service, and warns about global warming. “We are apprentices, high school students, middle school students and students. We came together via social networks because we are fed up with young people not only not being listened to,” said one of the movement’s spokespersons, Kaja Schwab, a 23-year-old student in Berlin, during an online press conference on Friday.
“There will be killer clowns against the CRS! » “Ryan”, dressed in black and a cap screwed on his head – but with a perfectly recognizable face –, promises the worst for “Act III” of the demonstrations, Saturday October 31: “It’s going to be American Nightmare”, he highlights under his little TikTok video, referring to the horrific film.
This sticker is just one element among others in the hubbub that has gripped young people who are fond of staging on social networks. A phenomenon which has been growing since the start of the high school movement, which now includes the anger of peripheral France against “the high cost of living” and “police repression”, with “Act III” of the demonstrations.
The Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, brought together the zone prefects to alert them to a “very high” risk of urban violence on Saturday. The question of procession routes has greatly crystallized tensions. The Paris police headquarters first rejected the Bastille-Nation route, proposed by the CGT and other union centers, before seeing its ban order suspended by the administrative court. Late Friday evening, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced that the Paris police chief would appeal the legal decision.
Some 70,000 police officers and gendarmes will be mobilized for the new day of social mobilization scheduled for Saturday, “an exceptional device” renewed, announced the Minister of the Interior Laurent Nuñez, warning of a day “with a very high risk of disturbances to public order”.
The security system put in place last Saturday to protect businesses and shopping centers, given “the numerous calls to commit looting that we are recording on social networks, will be renewed and amplified,” assured the minister during a press conference on the presentation of the plan planned for Saturday.
Gatherings will be authorized but “not in city centers, where there is a risk of disturbances to public order,” continued the minister, stressing that “the desire and desire to commit damage” is “always there.” “We will not tolerate any excess,” warned the minister, promising “extreme firmness”.
