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France has put 70,000 police officers and gendarmes on the streets across the country, backed by helicopters, drones, about 20 armoured vehicles and 15 water cannon trucks, as fresh demonstrations returned on Saturday, October 24, one week after nationwide protests descended into looting, arson and attacks on public buildings.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced the deployment on Friday after a security meeting with President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. Elite units normally used in counterterrorism operations were assigned to protect public facilities such as city halls, and soldiers from the Sentinelle military force patrolled landmarks including the Champs-Élysées, while police vans ringed the Arc de Triomphe.
The operation is about 10,000 officers larger than the roughly 60,000 mobilised for the October 17 demonstrations, and officials said it was designed to prevent a repeat of that weekend. On October 17, an estimated 550,000 people marched across France; masked groups set fires, smashed shopfronts and looted businesses, and torched the historic town hall in Limoges. More than 2,400 people were arrested, nearly 1,000 police officers were injured, and thousands of shops and businesses were damaged or looted. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said courts had since sent more than 200 people to prison over the violence, with over 1,100 cases before the courts.
Nuñez warned that posts by radical far-left groups inciting violence and looting were spreading on social media, and said officers had been told to respond swiftly to rioters and looters. "We have to be ultra, ultra responsive," he said, accusing far-left groups and criminal gangs of fomenting violence. By early Saturday afternoon, police had arrested 135 people nationwide, many following pre-emptive searches that uncovered fireworks, ball bearings and other items that could be used as weapons.
In Paris, tens of thousands of people marched peacefully on Saturday afternoon along the authorised route from Porte d'Italie to Porte de Vincennes, after the administrative court rejected a union challenge to a last-minute police order changing the route from Bastille to Nation. Elsewhere there were scattered confrontations: police fired tear gas at demonstrators in Lyon, where about 150 people were dispersed near the university, and in Clermont-Ferrand, Grenoble, Lille and Nice, where a water cannon was deployed after protesters refused orders to pull back. In Marseille and Lyon, clashes broke out between hooded youths and police.
Much of central Paris took on the appearance of a city under lockdown. Shopkeepers boarded up storefronts, luxury retailers increased private security, and business groups urged shops not to open, citing the thousands of commercial premises damaged or looted the previous weekend. More than 20 Paris metro stations were shut. The Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Picasso Museum, the Grand Palais and the Paris Opera closed for the day as a precaution, and Art Basel Paris curtailed its weekend programme.
The government also tightened where protests could happen. Macron said demonstrations would be banned except those held by authorised labour unions. Weekend protests were prohibited in Lyon, marches in Paris were limited to approved routes, and in Marseille local authorities allowed only union-organised protests they had approved. Nighttime curfews were extended around Place de la République and Les Halles in Paris, running from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. through the weekend. Opposition parties, unions and rights groups pushed back, saying the measures restrict freedom of assembly; Amnesty International criticised them as putting the right to demonstrate peacefully at risk.
The unrest began weeks ago with high-school students protesting deteriorating school conditions, staff shortages and decaying buildings. It has since spread into a broader movement over the rising cost of living, wages, pensions and public services, drawing students, workers, trade unions and Yellow Vest activists back to the streets. The National Rally also held its congress in Orléans on Saturday, where Marine Le Pen's presidential campaign was expected to formally launch, drawing planned counter-demonstrations by left-wing groups and adding to the day's flashpoints.
The renewed chaos has sharpened the political stakes ahead of the 2027 presidential race. Macron has called for "utmost severity" against delinquency and accused far-left groups of undermining the republic, while the scale of the disorder — and the government's struggle to contain it — has fuelled calls for a tougher crackdown and a right-wing political shift, with polls showing gains for Le Pen and the National Rally.