France’s government would rather nobody marched at all this weekend. That was the message from Emmanuel Macron on Thursday after an urgent session at the Élysée, where he sat down with his head of government Lecornu, several ministers and the heads of the spy agencies. Demonstrations will still be possible if a trade union organises them, though prefects may send them down alternative routes. Gatherings called by anyone else are to be banned wherever possible.
Macron justified the crackdown by pointing at far-left groups, whose conduct he branded as “sedition” aimed at overthrowing the state. Restoring calm comes first, the president insisted. Further decisions are due on Friday, when he convenes his top security ministers again.
The pressure on the state is enormous. Last Saturday, 17 October, somewhere between 550,000 and 800,000 people joined marches over living costs, fuel prices and run-down schools, a movement that was born in one school in the Paris suburb of Créteil. The interior ministry had planned for about 200,000. On the edges of those crowds, looters and arsonists ran riot; in Lyon alone, 200 to 300 shops were ransacked. According to Gérald Darmanin, who runs the justice ministry, police have detained some 2,500 people; over 900 face charges and 174 remain locked up awaiting trial.
The new rules are already visible on the map. Lyon and Marseille have banned every protest on 24 October, while Grenoble, Rouen, Le Havre, Toulon and Nice have closed their centres to marchers. In Paris, marchers may gather at Bastille in the east, yet they are barred from moving towards the centre, and a separate student and yellow-vest march is off. A night curfew around Place de la République and Les Halles now runs until Monday, and the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay and the Picasso museum will stay shut on Saturday.
Police numbers will be 20 percent higher than last weekend, backed by soldiers from the Sentinelle force, as shop owners board up their windows.
