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France puts 70,000 police on the streets as a second weekend of protests begins
Paris has shut the Louvre and Orsay, Art Basel has cancelled its weekend and Orléans braces for a march against Marine Le Pen's party congress.
Key points
- Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez is deploying about 70,000 police and gendarmes across France.
- The Louvre, Orsay, Picasso Museum and Grand Palais are closed on Saturday.
- Orléans expects 20,000 to 30,000 people at a protest against the Rassemblement National congress.
France is putting about 70,000 police officers and gendarmes on the streets on Saturday as cost-of-living protests return for a second weekend, a week after demonstrations ended in looting, fires and clashes with police in the worst unrest France has seen in years.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said helicopters, armoured vehicles and water cannon would back up the officers, with elite units guarding city halls and other public buildings. “We will be absolutely uncompromising” with anyone who turns to violence, he told reporters, promising “a very firm approach” to arrests.
A city closes its doors
In Paris, the Culture Ministry has shut the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, the Picasso Museum and the Grand Palais for the day. Art Basel Paris, which brings 211 galleries to the Grand Palais, opened to the public on Friday for a single day and cancelled its weekend programme.
Shops in Lyon and Orléans have been barricaded. A supermarket manager in central Paris whose store was looted last weekend said his staff were still on edge.
Authorities have banned some marches in Lyon, Nice and Montpellier, and moved routes in other cities away from shopping streets and public buildings. Protests are still expected in Paris and Marseille. Students angry about conditions in schools, members of the CGT union and “yellow vest” activists are due to join.
March on Le Pen’s congress
In Orléans, about 110 km south of Paris, some 50 unions, left-wing parties, student and anti-racism groups have called a protest against the two-day congress of Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, which opens on Saturday. Loiret prefect Hugues Moutouh expects 20,000 to 30,000 people.
Le Pen, the front-runner in polls for next spring’s presidential election, accused the left of trying to “disrupt a political party’s democratic congress” and said she had “no concerns” about security.
India has asked its nationals in France, Italy and Belgium to stay vigilant and avoid protest sites.