Police impose overnight curfew in parts of Paris

Macron vows no repeat of riots

French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to prevent a repeat of last weekend’s riots and looting, as the Yellow Vest movement filed plans for a major Paris march on Saturday that will present the government with its next big test.

Macron said yesterday that those seeking to cause disorder at the next protests would be stopped, while Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu met union leaders in an effort to defuse one of the worst crises France has faced in recent years.

Macron also accused some foreign leaders of spreading misinformation about what had happened. US President Donald Trump in particular has blamed the turbulence on mass migration, saying it was a warning for Americans.

Meanwhile, Paris police announced a new curfew in certain areas of the city from last night to this morning.

France’s neighbours Italy and Belgium have also started to experience similar unrest, on a smaller scale. Italy’s government has ordered 500 troops to Milan to stem street violence there.

A representative of France’s “Gilets Jaunes” (Yellow Vests) movement, a grassroots group not tied to the unions, presented plans for a march across the heart of Paris, including areas that were ransacked just days ago.

Student groups have also called for protests the same day to push demands for greater investment in education. Yellow Vest activists are seeking to revive their campaign, which emerged in 2018, against rising living costs and declining public services.

Last weekend’s demonstrations rapidly degenerated into rampant violence, especially in Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Limoges, which the overwhelmed police took hours to contain.

In a letter to unions ahead of yesterday’s meeting, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said their talks should focus on ensuring “the indispensable freedom to demonstrate”, which he said some were trying to curtail by associating it with “unacceptable acts”.

France’s main unions have separately called a nationwide mobilisation for November 5.

“There is huge and legitimate anger, and the answer to that situation is not repression. It is a political response. That’s what I will tell the prime minister today,” Sophie Binet, head of the CGT union, told RTL radio.

After the meeting, Binet told reporters the government made no new announcements, but did say that youth organisations would be invited for talks.