France to deploy 70,000 police as students urge further protests

Courts have sent 217 people to prison over last Saturday’s violence

France will deploy some 70,000 police nationwide as it braces for new protests this weekend after some of the worst urban violence in years erupted on the sidelines of demonstrations a week ago, the government said Friday.

President Emmanuel Macron, who, according to aides, is postponing a visit later this month to Nigeria and Senegal amid the crisis, held a meeting of his defence council of top ministers and officials and was to meet security forces.

He also met representatives of secondary school pupils for the first time, but they emerged from the talks urging students to keep protesting until the government put forward concrete proposals to address their demands.

Protests by high school students over learning conditions sparked a movement that has since spread nationwide, fuelled by broader anger over the rising cost of living.

Some 70,000 security personnel will be deployed on Saturday, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said at a press conference in Paris, warning that calls for violence and looting were circulating on social media.

The protests have come at a critical moment for France six months ahead of elections to replace Macron, with a new poll underlining far-right candidate Marine Le Pen as the frontrunner and indicating her position has been strengthened by the latest events.

Adding to tensions, Le Pen is at the weekend due to host her National Rally (RN) party congress in Orleans, with thousands of supporters expected and local authorities fearing clashes as counter-protesters also head to the city south of Paris.

After meeting Macron, student representative Nathanael Combary, president of campaign group High School Renewal, said the president had been "attentive" but that they were now awaiting proposals during talks with the prime minister on Monday.

"We are not satisfied," he said, urging pupils to "continue to mobilise" to maintain a "standoff" with the government.

Macron's government has sought to draw a line between the legitimate demands of protesters and the looting, burning and ransacking that erupted on the sidelines of protests last Saturday.

In a judicial response of unprecedented firmness, courts have already sent 217 people, half of them first-time offenders, to prison over the events on Saturday, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

On Thursday, Macron called for "the utmost severity" against "acts of delinquency", accusing "ultra-left" groups of having sought to "bring down the republic" last weekend.

Protest restrictions

A fresh wave of demonstrations is expected across France on Saturday, with authorities stepping up security measures and imposing restrictions on protests.

In Orleans, between 20,000 and 30,000 people were expected to come out against Le Pen's National Rally party, but the gathering will be barred from the city centre, the prefecture said.

In the southeastern city of Lyon, central areas will also be off-limits to demonstrators this weekend, while in Paris protesters will only be allowed to march a limited route between Bastille and Nation squares in the east.

Authorities in Marseille had also banned protests but announced Friday that a union-organised demonstration would be allowed on an "exceptional basis" -- the only one authorised in the southern Bouches-du-Rhone department.

In the capital, leading museums including the Louvre will be closed on Saturday while the Art Basel art fair is being cut short.

Police 'responsibility' 

The restrictions, including outright bans on protests in some cities, have drawn criticism.

Amnesty International denounced what it called "a slide toward authoritarian practice", saying the measures were "jeopardising the right to demonstrate peacefully".

Some 20 percent more members of the security forces will be deployed this weekend following questions over police preparedness and intelligence gathering ahead of last week's violence.

"In a country governed by the rule of law, the police have a responsibility both to ensure that protests can take place peacefully and safely and to protect the public from violent disorder," said Eva Cosse, senior Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch, expressing alarm over reports of children being severely injured by crowd-control weapons.

The violence has tarnished the image of France ahead of elections that could be a turning point in its modern history, with the government's debt pile also troubling investors.

A new poll by Harris Interactive for M6/RTL made after the violence showed Le Pen soaring ahead on 33-35 percent in the first round of voting for the presidential elections.

It predicted that hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon was on course to face her in the run-off, where Le Pen would emerge as an easy winner on some 70 percent of the vote.