The French Executive has again ordered the deployment of 70,000 police officers and gendarmes throughout the national territory, the same figure as the previous weekend, to reinforce security in the streets ahead of a new day of protests against the situation of public education, the rising cost of living and the recent episodes of police violence.
The French National Police has reported this device in a statement released on social media, in which it emphasizes that the objective of this reinforcement is none other than to "guarantee the security of the gatherings and prevent any spillover".
Since Friday night, checks have been put in place at the access points to urban areas and shopping centers located on the outskirts, as well as on the main traffic routes and in the vicinity of public transport stations, with the aim of "detecting and confiscating any object liable to be used to commit acts of violence or degradation". The Government has specified that these checks will continue throughout the day, at the request of the Prosecutor's Office.
In parallel, the Gendarmerie has activated departmental units, mobile gendarmes, reservists and other "specialized resources" to fulfill its "mission of protecting the population and property".
"Exceptional" operation due to the risk of disturbances on Halloween
The Ministry of the Interior has presented this broad device as an indispensable tool to "maintain public order" during the authorized marches and has defended the "firmness against disturbances to preserve the freedom of demonstration".
Interior stresses that the plan scheduled for this Saturday has an "exceptional" character due to the high risk of altercations, as the day of mobilizations coincides with the Halloween celebrations.
To the 70,000 agents already announced will be added specialized units and other additional means, including drones, helicopters, police dogs, armored vehicles (26) and water cannons (15).
For this weekend, the prefectures have mainly authorized demonstrations away from the centers of the large cities "where disturbances have been observed or are feared" and only the calls whose organizers have "provided sufficient safety guarantees" will be allowed. In any case, the Ministry emphasizes that the permitted marches will be "supervised and monitored until their end".
On the contrary, nighttime gatherings are prohibited, which "will be dispersed" if they take place despite the ban.
Interior has warned that "on social networks numerous calls are circulating for gatherings for the night of October 31, especially from 8:00 p.m. onward. Some messages explicitly incite violence, revolution, insurrection, for the marches to degenerate into violence and for acts of vandalism and looting. Interior considers that these calls are neither demands nor celebrations, but incitements to commit serious disturbances", before recalling that "these gatherings are prohibited by the prefects".
In this context, the Minister of the Interior, Laurent Núñez, has reaffirmed his confidence in the ministry's doctrine, based on the principles of "firmness, rapid response and greater mobility of internal security forces", and has insisted that "excesses will not be tolerated". "The mission of these forces is to disperse the at-risk groups and, if necessary, detain them", he stressed.