Police and elite security forces are out in force in French cities as thousands participate in a new round of protests. The protest location was changed last minute in Paris.
Protesters are out in the streets once again after demonstrations last week spiraled into chaos, with looters and rioters having joined in. French government was under fire to do more from both the right and the left, with the government having deployed a heavy police presence today. More than 70,000 police and elite forces are out in force in the streets in Paris, Marseille, and elsewhere. Museums in Paris are closed for the day, and police have carried out spot checks to ensure that rioters are closed off from the protest route in the capital city. Protests are also expected in eight Italian cities, including Rome and Milan.
France's Interior Minister, Laurent Nunez said that police had arrested 135 people and seized a variety of weapons as they deployed for nationwide demonstrations. Nunez said police have been given orders to prevent renewed street violence. He said weapons confiscated included metal balls, lead pellets, fireworks, slingshots, steel balls, improvised weapons, a katana and airsoft weapons. He went on to say that, so far, "there has been no major incident." Earlier this morning, Nunez posted on social media that he had visited personnel belonging to the Paris intervention unit who make up some of the contingent mobilized in Paris. "Our forces are mobilized, our setup is in place. We are ready," Nunez said.
France's Yellow Vest movement, one of the key groups behind recent protests against the high cost of living, on Saturday called for new demonstrations on October 31. Organizers from the largely rural-based group said in Paris that they wanted fresh rallies and a sit-in outside parliament, as well as outside city halls nationwide, to be held in protest at what it called the "authoritarian drift" of President Emmanuel Macron. Members of the group have also refused to comply with a police order to shift the route of a union-organized route to the edge of the capital, although the unions themselves have agreed to do so. Next Saturday, "we will protest for the freedom to protest, and for all our freedoms," a coordinator from the group told journalists at Paris's Bastille square, which was where the march was due to set off originally.
As the unrest in France spills over to its European neighbors, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has ordered 500 additional soldiers to be sent to Milan to join hundreds already stationed there as the northern city braces for more protests. They will support some 5,000 police and other law enforcement personnel present in Milan in a bid to prevent the looting and violence seen at protests last week. Authorities are conducting drone surveillance, carrying out checks at railway stations and monitoring potential calls to violence online. Security is also high in Rome, with luxury shopping streets locked down and stepped-up controls around the Circus Maximus and Piazza del Popolo ahead of planned demonstrations.
Tourists out to see the sights in Paris on Saturday might be in for quite a few disappointments, with several key sites closed amid security fears. The Louvre, the Orsay Museum and the Picasso Museum are all to remain closed for the day, as is the Grand Palais, where a major exbibition of the French painter Paul Cezanne is currently taking place. The contemporary art fair Art Basel Paris, which opened to the public of Friday, closed its doors the day after, with the entire weekend program canceled. Other major sites that are closed include the Tuileries Gardens, which was already shut on Friday owing to stormy weather. The famous Arc de Triomphe is also closed to visitors, while the Champs Elysee, which leads to it, is under access restrictions, as are several other key locations.
Police have used teargas grenades to disperse a small protest in an area banned to all demonstrations in the southeastern city of Lyon, according to a journalist from the French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP). The group was protesting near a university faculty and the city's police station, according to AFP. The agency said the police took action as the protesters tried to block the road.
Many store owners across France have taken their own precautionary measures to protect their premises against vandalism despite a high police presence meant to guarantee security. Several glitzy facades of prestigious shops in the capital, Paris, have now disappeared behind boards.
With some 70,000 police officers to be deployed on Saturday, many people in France are fearing repeat violence not just from certain groups of protesters but also from the forces of law and order. During recent student protests, a number of teenagers sustained serious injuries amid police actions, and multiple unconfirmed videos have shown incidents of brutality toward protesters at last week's wider demonstrations. French police are among the most heavily armed in Europe and are subjected to less independent oversight than in many other countries. Rights group Amnesty International has described the police response to the current protests as "disproportionate" and called upon French authorities to "act upon their human rights obligations."
A two-day congress of the far-right National Rally (RN) party in the city of Orleans, some 110 km (70 miles) south of Paris, is expected to draw its own protest by labor unions, left-wing parties, students and anti-racism groups. The congress is to be hosted by Marine Le Pen, the party's lead candidate at French presidential elections in six months time. Authorities fear clashes between counterprotesters and supporters of Le Pen, who has a nationalist, anti-immigration agenda and has received upwind from the recent protests by taking a strong law-and-order stance and citing "anarchic immigration" as one factor behind them. The congress is likely to see the reelection of party president, Jordan Bardella.
