Paris braced for a new day of nationwide protests on Saturday, with museums closed and shops boarded up, a week after France saw some of its worst riots in decades.
The interior ministry said it would deploy 70,000 police officers after opposition parties accused the government of failing to foresee the scale of the Oct. 17 riots, in which shops were looted and buildings torched, including the 19th-century town hall in Limoges.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said authorities would be “uncompromising with the vandals, with the looters” and pointed to calls for violence on social media from the radical left.
Paris is boarding up today. Storefronts barricaded across the city center. Shops walled up with wooden boards. They are preparing for another day of violence. https://t.co/S1kPMKgIjA
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— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) October 24, 2026
President Emmanuel Macron decreed that only demonstrations organised by recognised trade unions could go ahead. Lyon, Nice and Montpellier imposed blanket bans on gatherings. In Paris, a student union march was ordered to avoid the city centre.
The Louvre, Orsay and Picasso museums were closed, and a Paris Saint-Germain home match was moved to Monday.
A revived “yellow vest” movement listed more than 500 planned demonstrations nationwide and demanded Macron’s resignation.
The protests began with high school students demanding better school conditions before widening into anti-government anger fuelled by cost-of-living pressures. Macron met student representatives on Friday and pledged commitments on education from Monday.
It is not Kyiv; it is Paris, October 2026. https://t.co/Z5yuvkdmEY
— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) October 23, 2026
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said 232 people had been jailed over last week’s riots and more than 1,100 had appeared in court.
A National Rally conference in Orléans, where Marine Le Pen is due to speak, was seen as a potential flashpoint, with left-wing groups expected to converge on the city.