The protest is prohibited in the center of Paris and is taken to the periphery

After a court battle almost until the last minute, the Council of State - the highest administrative arbiter in France - has decided that this Saturday's demonstration will not take place in the center of Paris but in a peripheral area of ​​the capital, to avoid as much as possible the risk of damage if riots occur.

The Council of State had to intervene in the face of the opposing opinion of the police prefecture and the Government, in favor of sending the protesters as far as possible from the center, and the Administrative Court, which had ruled in favor of the main organizer of the march, the CGT union. The problem is that the conflict lasted until this Saturday morning, leaving in the air where the protest was going to take place, an uncertainty that made life even more complicated for merchants who wanted to protect their stores.

The distance from the urban center of the marches poses a problem of freedom of assembly and demonstration, since the organizers maintain that the impact of their protest is minor, that they are trying to be silenced. According to them, if a state of emergency is not declared, it is not justified to put so many limits on a constitutional right.

The Ministers of the Interior and Justice, Laurent Nuñez and Gérald Darmanin, respectively, warned on Friday about the risk of serious riots and looting like those of October 17 and 18. Their fear is based on the multiple calls for chaos made from social networks by radical groups of the yellow vests and the ultra-left, who used Halloween images and promised a violent party.

The prohibited demonstration had a traditional itinerary, between the Place de la Bastille and the Place de la Nation. The yellow vests wanted one even more in the center, along the large boulevards full of shops and up to the National Assembly. That option was flatly rejected by the prefecture. Finally, a march was authorized between the Porte de Bagnolet and the Porte de Charenton, in an area very far from the east of the city.

A CGT spokesperson considered the imposed itinerary “symbolic of Macronism,” another example of the president's disdain for social demands, reaching the extreme, already at the end of his mandate, of physically pushing the protesters to the outskirts of the cities.

“The pretext of Halloween night will not be a legitimate reason to hide your face in public spaces,” Minister Nuñez warned. Through the X network, the police prefecture recalled that a person who hides their face in public is exposed to a fine of 150 euros. Although the 2010 law that regulates this matter provides for exceptions in festivals and artistic or traditional demonstrations, another subsequent law from 2019 specified that this exception to be able to wear a mask does not apply to demonstrations with the risk of degenerating into violence.

French law enforcement forces have no respite. After today's high-risk day, they must prepare for the strike called by the unions for next Thursday, November 5.