2026-10-23
French authorities will deploy about 70,000 police nationwide on Saturday to prevent more civil unrest after some of the worst street violence in years erupted on the fringes of last weekend’s cost-of-living protests, the government said. On Friday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the operation would include 10,000 additional officers and elite units usually used for counter-terrorism operations and hostage rescues. Authorities banned or rerouted events in several cities after violence and extensive looting followed largely peaceful demonstrations last weekend.
2026-10-23
Riot police encircled Place de la République last Saturday and fired tear-gas canisters to disperse demonstrators while Étienne Jarrier and the Orchestre du Nouveau Monde played on, The Guardian reported. Jarrier said the orchestra kept playing after nearly everyone else had disappeared and gas continued into the central Paris square, then stopped after canisters landed in double bass and music stand cases and started fires. The French Ministry of Defence and Paris police prefecture did not respond.
2026-10-21
Emmanuel Macron accused Donald Trump and other foreign leaders of making “stupid comments” about France’s street unrest for political gain during a visit to Qatar. Macron separately said AI-generated images depicting scenes that never occurred had circulated and called claims that France had been invaded by hordes of migrants and Islamists “completely false.” The gilets jaunes filed plans for a Saturday march through central Paris, and France’s main trade unions called a nationwide mobilisation for 5 November, after violence and looting followed cost-of-living demonstrations.
2026-10-20
French police took more than 2,500 people into custody nationwide after a weekend of violence that left shops ransacked and public buildings damaged. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said police were combing through security-camera footage and social-media videos and promised further arrests, while authorities prepared for planned protests Saturday. The Wall Street Journal described the events as “some of the worst unrest to rock the country in years.”