{"id":660876,"date":"2026-10-21T00:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T00:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/660876\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T00:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T00:24:13","slug":"massive-security-operation-planned-in-france-ahead-of-fresh-protests-on-saturday-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/660876\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Massive\u2019 security operation planned in France ahead of fresh protests on Saturday \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fr<\/a>ench<\/a> cities were calm overnight under curfews imposed after last weekend\u2019s scenes of chaos, as protest groups announced a new round \u200cof demonstrations next Saturday.<\/p>\n

Reeling from a weekend of extraordinary violence, the government is scrambling to reassure people it has learned its lesson \u200bfrom security shortcomings that left the centres of cities such as Paris, Marseilles and Lyons largely unprotected from post-demonstration rioters and looters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe targeted curfews have contributed to the calm of last night,\u201d prime minister S\u00e9bastien Lecornu said in a post on \u200bX, adding that the measure could be extended \u201cwhere the situation requires it\u201d.<\/p>\n

The fresh curfews were being imposed across the city centres of Paris and Lyon on Tuesday after the first quiet night since France<\/a>\u2019s most destructive rioting in years.<\/p>\n

Lecornu said a \u201cmassive\u201d security operation was being planned for new protests on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Paris police said the current curfew in two designated zones \u2014 around Place de la R\u00e9publique and the Les Halles shopping district \u2014 had restored \u201cpublic peace\u201d overnight and would remain in place \u201cfor as long as necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n

The curfew zones leave out other areas hit on Saturday, including the Champs-Elys\u00e9es and the area around the Saint-Lazare train station and parts of the Rue de Turbigo in central Paris, where protesters set up barricades and lit fires.<\/p>\n

At the weekend, hundreds of thousands of people took part in combined protests across France by students and people angry about the cost of living<\/a>, in demonstrations accompanied by arson and looting that continued from Saturday into Sunday.<\/p>\n

They stoked a febrile political atmosphere as candidates from the far right and far left lead \u2060the field for a presidential election next \u200bApril and May.<\/p>\n

The calm after the weekend chaos hands the government a short breather after weeks \u2060of protests that have exhausted police \u2060and public authorities. But new \u200bchallenges await next Saturday.<\/p>\n

Representatives of the Yellow Vest movement, which organised Saturday\u2019s protest, declined to disown the violence and declared they would hold an \u201cact two\u201d protest this Saturday. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were asked to condemn the violence, the riots, the barricades. To condemn the anger of the people,\u201d the organisers said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"AA man walks past a row of burnt-out vehicles on Rue Yves Toudic in Paris on October 19th. Photograph: Kiran Ridley\/AFP via Getty Images \"TheThe damage in front of a devastated Monoprix store in Paris on Sunday. Photograph: Daniel Perron\/Hans Lucas\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cWe refuse to add our voice to the chorus of indignation. We do not condemn this anger: we applaud it.\u201d<\/p>\n

France\u2019s main student union UNEF said in a flyer posted on social media that it planned to keep up the pressure on president Emmanuel Macron<\/a> and his government to fix what students and pupils say is a broken and under-financed education system.<\/p>\n

Coming in the build-up to a presidential election in the spring, the scenes of looting and burning of famous buildings including Limoges town hall led to bitter political recriminations, with calls for Macron to resign or to declare a state of emergency.<\/p>\n

After holding a crisis meeting on Monday, Lecornu said he was \u201cabsolutely determined to restore order\u201d and did not rule out calling a state of emergency. \u201cIf needed, I will do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he told reporters that for now targeted curfews were a better solution, and said he had asked local authorities to put them in place to prevent further nights of violence.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0 \u2018There\u2019s nothing left\u2019: French businesses count the cost of a weekend of unrestOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe chaos, to put it bluntly, is focused in urban centres,\u201d Lecornu said. \u201cWe are dealing with a very specific and widespread form of crime: looting and also reselling.\u201d<\/p>\n

The economy ministry met representatives of online retail platforms to discuss how to prevent looted goods from being re-sold and to seek assistance in identifying those seeking to sell stolen items.<\/p>\n

At least 3,000 businesses were affected, according to the government, with damages expected to amount to hundreds of millions of euro.<\/p>\n

Lecornu announced supports for ransacked businesses including furlough schemes for employees as he sought to staunch any wider economic damage. <\/p>\n

\"MunicipalMunicipal workers and a member of the public look at the burnt out remains of a barricade on Boulevard de Sebastapol during a clean up operation in Paris on Sunday. Photograph: Kiran Ridley\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get things back up and running very quickly. Obviously, we can\u2019t risk losing jobs, and French businesses are major employers,\u201d Lecornu said. \u201cThere\u2018s a need for cash flow. Many retailers had already stocked up for Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost 2,400 people were arrested during the weekend unrest and nearly 1,000 police officers were injured, according to the interior ministry.<\/p>\n

Interior minister Laurent Nu\u00f1ez had offered to resign following the violence, admitting police had \u201clost control\u201d. Macron did not accept his resignation, instead asking for clarity about why there were \u201cintelligence and foresight failings\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nu\u00f1ez announced that additional police forces would be deployed this weekend.<\/p>\n

French stocks sank when financial markets opened on Monday. The government now faces the difficult task of passing a budget through a hung parliament, balancing strong public opposition to spending cuts and bond markets concerned about French national debt.<\/p>\n

Representatives of the trade unions, which have called national demonstrations to demand pay increases on November 5th, have been invited to meet the government for talks on Wednesday. – Additional reporting: Agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French cities were calm overnight under curfews imposed after last weekend\u2019s scenes of chaos, as protest groups announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[943,9146,1814,42,43,1838,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-660876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-cost-of-living","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-france","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-paris","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}