France seeks to ban fresh protests

French authorities on Thursday imposed bans or restrictions on fresh protests springing up in the wake of demonstrations last weekend that degenerated into the worst street violence in years.

President Emmanuel Macron said, after chairing a meeting of key ministers and intelligence officials, that curfews and other security measures would be imposed, including bans on “groups without legitimacy” holding protests.

“The priority is a return to calm,” he said, adding that he would chair a defence council meeting of key ministers today to decide “the next steps” for new nationwide demonstrations called for Saturday and afterwards.

Officials are still reeling from the clashes, widespread looting and vandalism of public buildings that broke out on October 17, on the margins of mass demonstrations of more than half a million people against the surging cost of living.

Macron’s government has admitted police lost control, and candidates jockeying to succeed him in presidential elections in six months argue that authorities are incapable or unwilling to calm the situation.

The worst of the violence, Macron said, “was led by organised ultra-left groups aiming to bring down the republic”.

Protests banned

A Paris protest Thursday organised by students – who had held four weeks of protests before the October 17 rallies – was banned by the capital’s police.

“The authorities are trying to make a distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ protesters,” said a university student leader, Coppelia Moreau, as lawyers requested a court injunction against the ban.

“What we are seeing is a government that doesn’t want any demonstrations at all. That goes against the right to demonstrate,” she told journalists.

Authorities on Thursday also declared a ban on “all protests” in the southwestern city of Lyon on Saturday.

France’s third-biggest city suffered the looting of 200 to 300 shops last weekend and the torching of a tourist office in what its mayor described as hours of “chaos”.

Other cities, including Grenoble, Rouen, Le Havre and Toulon, issued bans on protests in their city centres.

In Paris, the city’s police said Thursday that the march planned for Saturday could be held in the east of the capital, starting at Bastille, but was banned from heading into the city centre, where shops and major public buildings are located.

The Yellow Vest movement organising the cost-of-living rallies along with unions said it did not agree with the order.

“We won’t sign off on it,” said Benjamin Ball, who runs an online map showing the planned locations of Saturday’s demonstrations.

State of emergency

The French government has been projecting a firm response in the wake of last weekend’s violence, although Macron has said he would not go as far as to call a state of emergency.

Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said Wednesday that 174 people of the 2,500 arrested since last weekend had been locked up, and more than 900 were being prosecuted.

On Thursday, a 66-year-old man was arrested over the arson last weekend of the 19th-century town hall of Limoges, prosecutors said. A man in his 30s was already arrested Tuesday over the same crime.

Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader whom voter surveys place as the frontrunner candidate ahead of the April-May presidential elections, has accused Macron and his centrist government of being too soft and lacking authority.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a far-left candidate criticised by the government for not condemning the protest violence, blamed authorities’ “non-stop brutal repression” for the unrest.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu on Thursday was to host a meeting of top officials from France’s main parties to hear their grievances and seek cooperation. While most were sending their leaders, Le Pen’s National Rally was to be represented by a lower-ranking party official.

Lecornu was to follow that up with another meeting with mayors, and on Monday he will meet student groups.