French security forces have imposed a curfew in two central areas of Paris ahead of the demonstrations planned for this weekend, also coinciding with Halloween celebrations and with a large extraordinary police deployment.
The Prefecture has set the movement restriction between 23:00 and 6:00 hours in the vicinity of the Place de la République and in the Châtelet-Les Halles area, a measure that will apply on the nights from Saturday to Sunday and from Sunday to Monday.
The authorities have emphasized that, in the context of the protests against the rising cost of living and the Halloween festivities, the measures to guarantee security continue to be essential and "are justified by the existence of disturbances of public order".
At the same time, the Paris Police Prefecture has vetoed the route proposed by the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) and the 'yellow vests' for Saturday's march, and has suggested an alternative route between Porte de Bagnolet and Porte de Charenton, in the east of the city, with departure scheduled for 14:00 hours.
On the other hand, the French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, on the eve of the new gatherings, has reiterated in a circular addressed to prosecutors the need to "maintain a firm and rapid criminal response" to the "significant risk" that "violent acts will be committed on October 31, 2026, especially during the night".
Darmanin has insisted that the State services remain very attentive to activity on social networks, in the face of possible calls to violence. "Public incitements to violence, especially on social networks, must be the subject of special vigilance in their judicial handling, resorting to the mechanisms of banning access to social networks," he has pointed out in the message sent to prosecutors and cited by the newspaper 'Le Figaro'.
In this document, he stresses that the identified perpetrators of attacks against the security forces, damage to public property, arson or looting "will be brought before the judicial authorities at the end of their police custody and prosecuted through the procedure of immediate appearance," and specifies that minors "will be prosecuted with the same demand for speed and firmness in the most serious cases".
33 detained are taken into provisional prison after the riots
The French National Police reported this Friday that 33 people arrested last weekend for episodes of violence and looting in the context of the citizen protests have been sent to provisional prison, ahead of another weekend in which the law enforcement forces are preparing for new mass mobilizations.
In an official note, it detailed that several of those detained on October 24 have already been brought before the courts in cities such as Marseille or Bayonne, among others.
In Marseille, 18 individuals were arrested while looting two businesses; four of them have entered prison after being brought before the judicial authorities, while the rest have been released under judicial supervision.
In Toulon, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, 22 people have been sent to provisional prison for their involvement in violent clashes with the Police, and the detention of ten of them has been extended.
In Bayonne, a man who threw tear gas and blunt objects at the agents, in addition to assaulting one of them, has been sentenced to six months in prison and is already in prison.
In the department of Drome, 18 people have been placed in provisional detention for carrying prohibited material, among them knives, hydrochloric acid, a metal projectile launcher and explosive mortars.
The Ministry of the Interior has recalled that during the large social protests last Saturday, 1,314 arrests were made, a figure lower than the 2,628 of Saturday, October 17, and that the number of riots and serious incidents was significantly lower.