Reporting
from Paris
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/10/24/world/france-protests-riots
The
authorities deployed large-scale security forces across France on Saturday to
prevent a repeat of last weekend’s mass protests, which degenerated into arson,
looting and other violence.
By midday
local time, the police had arrested 135 people, according to Laurent Nuñez, the
interior minister. He estimated that 35,000 people were on the streets
nationwide, fewer than at the same time last Saturday, when more than a half
million people demonstrated by the end of the day.
The lone
protest permitted in Marseille, where looters
ravaged a commercial avenue last week, drew thousands of people, including
students and some parents with young children. Close to where the authorized
protest was intended to end, clashes broke out between protesters and the
police, who fired tear gas at one point.
In Orléans,
south of Paris, a protest against France’s main far-right party, the National
Rally, which is holding its convention in the city, ended peacefully in the
afternoon. The local authorities said 11,000 protesters had gathered, while
organizers in the crowd said 26,000 had joined.
Thousands of
people turned out on the southeast edge of Paris, even after organizers were
forced to change the protest location at the last minute.
With rallies
also planned in other cities, France will face a test of whether it can get a
grip on the outbreak of urban violence that has shocked the public and thrown
the country’s leaders on the defensive.
What began
as a student-led protest movement has mutated into something darker — a
nationwide cycle of violence that raises basic questions about France’s ability
to preserve law and order. On Oct. 14, the police failed to control marauding
bands as they shattered shop windows, looted merchandise, incinerated vehicles
and besieged public buildings.
On Saturday,
as many as 70,000 police officers and gendarmes, reinforced by elite military
troops, armored vehicles, drones and helicopters, filled streets and the skies
in Paris, Marseille, Lyon and other cities. Several cities, including Le Havre,
Toulon and Nice, banned all demonstrations in their downtown areas.
Here’s what
to know:
- Economic backdrop: Fears about France’s ballooning
government deficit pushed the yield on its 10-year bond to above 5 percent
on Friday for the first time since 2002, raising the prospect of a
full-blown financial crisis. The government was spared another blow on
Friday when the ratings agency Moody’s opted to maintain its rating on
France’s sovereign debt. It had been widely expected to downgrade the
rating. Read
more ›
- Closures: Shops across Paris boarded up
their windows. The Louvre and other cultural institutions announced they
would close on Saturday, and the Art Basel fair ended on Friday, two days
early. A Sunday soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique
Lyonnais was postponed.
- Nationwide unrest: The protest movement began with
a handful of student demonstrations at high schools in suburban Paris last
month. It has since broadened spread. Read
more ›
- Student protesters: On Friday, President Emmanuel
Macron invited representatives of the high school students to his office,
the first time he has engaged with them since they began protesting the
state of the education system last month.
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