Amid quickly escalating France protests, French authorities face mounting pressure to restore order following chaotic scenes during last weekend’s massive demonstrations against the rising cost of living.
Officials estimate the damage to retail establishments and public buildings at several hundred million euros.
The Justice Ministry announced Thursday that police have taken roughly 2,700 individuals into custody for rioting and looting, with fast-track court proceedings already imprisoning 217 people.
Paris Police Prefect Laurent Nuñez stated that a deployment of 70,000 security personnel will draw from local forces, elite police units, and mobile gendarmes across the nation.
Furthermore, French security forces will position 15 water cannons and approximately 20 gendarmerie armored vehicles at strategic locations nationwide.
On Saturday, the anti-establishment Yellow Vest movement, which first emerged in 2018, plans to march through central Paris.
Authorities have prohibited all protests in Lyon and Marseille, restricting permitted demonstrations solely to those organized by trade unions.
Several major cities, including Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Nice, and Montpellier, have implemented nighttime curfews.
Rising tensions amid France protests
The security announcement came after the nation’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office opened a criminal investigation into the shooting of several people in a Paris suburb on Friday morning.
Police have arrested the suspect, though investigators have not yet determined whether his motivations are political.
The violent incident unfolded just six months before French voters head to the polls to elect a successor to President Emmanuel Macron.
In response to the escalating security crisis and ongoing unrest, numerous businesses, institutions, and events across the country are planning preemptive closures this weekend despite existing restrictions and arrests.
Backstory…
France saw widespread unrest on October 17, when protests over the rising cost of living, fuel prices and the state of public services were accompanied by clashes, looting and vandalism in Paris, Marseille, Lyon and other cities.
French President Emmanuel Macron said after a security meeting that only demonstrations organised by trade unions should be authorised, while calling for protests by groups he described as lacking legitimacy to be rejected.
However, the measures to curb the France protests have sparked criticism from organisations including the Human Rights League (LDH), whose president, Nathalie Tehio, argued that the right to protest is a fundamental freedom and warned against allowing the president to determine which groups may exercise it.
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