Saturday of protests and demonstrations not only in Italy but also in France: the new act of mobilization which, last Saturday, united students, yellow vests and trade unions is planned in several French cities. Up to 500 thousand participants are expected. New unrest is feared: over 70 thousand police officers, gendarmes and firefighters have been deployed throughout the country.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez reported that 135 people were stopped in the morning: "The majority of these stops are the result of checks" and "seizures of material intended to be used as a weapon", he added. After the looting and fires that occurred on the sidelines of the demonstrations last week, the minister assured the commitment of the security forces to prevent those scenes from happening again: the toll was 3,000 shops damaged, burned or looted, a town hall destroyed in Limoges, and hundreds of millions of damages. "We will be absolutely inflexible", reiterated the minister, who spoke of "calls on social media to carry out violent acts and looting". Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu added that "the threat level remains high". French President Emmanuel Macron also called for a hard line against those responsible for the riots, who were arrested and are now on immediate trial.
The French authorities, in several cities, have decided to restrict the scope of freedom to demonstrate: in general, only protests called by trade unions are allowed. A decision, supported by Macron, which led the opposition to speak of "freedom-killing" behavior. Urgent appeals were also presented to the Council of State against the directive to the prefects, announced by the president, which led to the ban on taking to the streets in cities such as Lyon, Metz, Nancy, Besançon. Precisely in Lyon, in the morning the police used tear gas to disperse a gathering of around 150 people who were blocking traffic near the Lyon 3 University. Marseille also risked a ban, then at the last minute a route was agreed for the demonstration to take place. Transport suspended and shops closed in several cities. Maximum attention also in Orleans, where the congress of the nationalist party Rassemblement National is taking place with Marine Le Pen officially launching her bid for the Elysée.
In Paris several shops have decided to lock their windows and museums are closed. In the capital, the authorized route for today's demonstration was changed at the last minute. Initially, the route proposed by the CGT union together with the students was approved, the traditional one between Bastille and Nation. Then on Friday evening the prefecture changed its mind: with an ordinance, the prefect banned that route, diverting the demonstrators onto a very decentralized route between the Porte d'Italie and the Porte de Vincennes, via the boulevard des Maréchaux. However, the police fear that groups of students will gather at the Bastille. The demonstration was also rescheduled: from 1pm to 7pm. The reason given by the prefect was that the initial itinerary was "difficult to make safe", presented a "high risk of violence" with "spontaneous processions that could separate from the demonstration or form independently". The unions presented an urgent appeal to the TAR, which was rejected. Even the yellow vests, who wanted to march from the Bastille to the historic centre, concluding the procession at Place de l'Opéra, were denied approval for the route.
For this new Saturday of mobilisations, according to observers, the high school and university students no longer seem to be the driving force as at the beginning: their demonstrations started the protests, but it is not certain that even today the very young will be present in the streets in a massive way. In the last few hours, among other things, the representatives of all the student organizations were received at the Elysée by Macron with results described as discreet.
Meanwhile, the yellow vests have already launched an appeal for a new day of mobilization for "the defense of public liberties" on October 31, with rallies and sit-ins in front of the Assemblée Nationale and French town halls to denounce what they define as the "authoritarian drift" of the government. "There is an anger in the country that is not listened to", according to the declaration of the yellow vests, who denounce "the contempt, the refusal to listen, the lies and the repression" implemented by the government.
