France to deploy 70,000 officers as it preps for Halloween protests

Mass protests are planned across France on Saturday – Halloween – with a heavy security operation in place.

Authorities in France are bracing for another potentially tense day of protests, with ahigh risk of public disorder” on Saturday

Around 70,000 police officers are to be deployed across the country as people take to the streets once again on Halloween.

For the third consecutive weekend, trade unions, students and members of the yellow vest movement are set to hold demonstrations, marching in protest over school conditions and the cost-of-living crisis.

It comes after the French government outlined several policies addressing student grievances on Monday, which unions have branded as insufficient.

Authorities are rolling out a ramped-up security operation this weekend, as they did on 24 October, in response to the widespread violence and looting that overshadowed otherwise peaceful demonstrations on 17 October.

Thefor undeclared gatherings in public squares across France have proliferated,” along with “plans for unauthorised marches towards places of power and state institutions.”

On Thursday, France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez declared that protests in city centres had been banned and that only those “on the outskirts of cities” would be permitted. He added that organisers had been asked to “provide guarantees” that demonstrations would occur in “good conditions.”

For their part, trade unions and the yellow vest movement have criticised these measures. In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, major unions said they would explore “all possible avenues of appeal against this general and disproportionate ban on the exercise of a public freedom that is essential in a democracy.”

Nuñez also said on Thursday that the fact that protests coincided with Halloween could encourage unrest, which may run into the night. He warned that gatherings seeking to pass off as Halloween celebrations would be banned, while also calling out social media posts from groups including “ultra-left circles” that have urged individuals to back a “revolution” and “insurrection.”

A number of law enforcement officers who were on leave had been called back to duty across France, while others have had their rest days cancelled. Meanwhile, Paris police imposed a curfew on Saturday and Sunday night in districts that experienced significant unrest on 17 October.

Over the course of the student movement, rights groups have repeatedly accused police forces of using disproportionate force against protestors.

France’s student protest movement began in mid-September, after pupils staged demonstrations against school conditions in the Parisian suburbs. The movement rapidly spread nationwide, leading unions and political forces to join.

The demonstrations – which come around six months before France’s presidential elections – have since expanded into a broader social movement against the cost-of-living crisis and rising fuel prices.

Source: www.euronews.com