France will mobilize around 70,000 security agents across the country for the new demonstrations planned for this weekend, said Interior Minister Laurent Nunez this Friday (23).
He warned that calls for violence and looting were already circulating on social media.
"We have identified numerous appeals from far-left and radical far-left movements," Nunez said at a press conference.
According to the minister, the mobilized force will include elite police units, around 20 armored vehicles and 15 vehicles with water cannons.
Last Thursday (22), thousands of people took to the streets of Paris, while other French cities banned demonstrations after clashes and looting over the weekend. The episodes were considered the most violent in recent years in the country.
Since last Saturday (17), 2,700 people have been arrested due to demonstrations and invasions of commercial establishments, according to the French Minister of Justice, Gerald Darmanin.
New bans are expected in the coming days. The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, stated that the measures aim to protect city centers, commercial establishments and public buildings.
The right to demonstrate is protected by the French Constitution. Groups of high school and college students said they will continue to mobilize despite the start of the fall school break this week.
Macron attributed the weekend's violence to the actions of far-left radical groups who, according to him, intended to overthrow the Republic, as well as criminals interested in looting establishments.
The wave of unrest in Paris and other cities prompted authorities to reinforce security. Nighttime curfews were adopted in some regions of the capital and in other municipalities where the situation had already been controlled.
Thursday's demonstrations were considered a preparation for a major event scheduled for Saturday (24). The expectation is that activists from the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), one of the main French trade unions, will join the yellow vest movement, which organized protests against fuel prices in 2018 and 2019.
Local authorities said they also intend to ban some demonstrations in cities such as Lyon, Marseille and Montpellier.
Municipalities outside the capital were also hit by the disturbances. In Limoges, a fire almost destroyed the town hall, a 19th century building.
French Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, met last Wednesday (21) with union representatives and stated that a major security operation will be organized for Saturday. The objective is to avoid the repetition of episodes of violence caused by small groups, which exposed flaws in security measures.
Union representatives said the meeting did not result in concrete proposals. Now, the entities are concentrating their efforts on another mobilization day, scheduled for November 5th, and have called on workers from the public and private sectors to participate.
Demonstrations began last month at a high school in Créteil, on the outskirts of Paris, in reaction to a lack of staff. Then, school strikes, blockades and protests spread to other suburbs of the capital and reached different regions of the country, including smaller cities.
Students demand more resources for schools, improvements in infrastructure and the hiring of employees, especially in lower-income neighborhoods. Some of the protesters also call for changes to the university admission system, considered complex and unfair by critics.
Given the government's difficulty in meeting student demands, school protests and blockades began to incorporate other demands, including protests against the increase in the cost of living.
The expansion of the movement comes months before the 2027 presidential election, which will choose Macron's successor.
