Macron Says Illegitimate Protests Will Be Banned as France Braces for Another Weekend of Unrest

President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that protests he called illegitimate will be banned in France in the coming days, and he blamed what he called seditious ultra-left groups and vandals for the rioting and looting that hit French cities last weekend.

Macron spoke after a meeting with intelligence chiefs and senior ministers in Paris on October 22. Demonstrations organised by groups such as trade unions will still be allowed, he said, but they can be diverted along alternative routes to protect businesses. "This is to protect our city centres," he said.

"Last Saturday we had political and seditious acts by ultra-left groups whose aim is to bring down the Republic," Macron said.

Paris and Lyon bar planned gatherings

The bans have already started. Paris has banned protests in parts of the city on Thursday, including the Louvre, the Champs-Elysees, the Elysee Palace, the prime minister's office and the Senate. City authorities have specifically banned a student protest that was planned for Thursday. Police gave as their reason the organisers' inability to avoid acts of violence during the gatherings of October 13 and 17. Metro stations in central Paris were still shut by transit authorities in case unauthorised gatherings went ahead.

In Lyon, the prefect for the Rhone region has banned all protests in the city this Saturday, October 24, by decree, citing the events of October 17, when disorder in the city saw the tourist office set on fire.

Unions answer with a strike call

The unions are pushing back. France's main student union, UNEF, has called rallies for Saturday, and the Yellow Vest movement, which first erupted over fuel prices in 2018, has filed plans for a march through central Paris.

Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT union confederation, said a one day general strike called for November 5 should continue until the government gives in to union demands. After meeting Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, Binet said the government had failed to heed those demands and called for the strikes to be generalised from November 5. French unions are seeking wage rises and higher public spending. Yellow vest activist Benjamin Ball also backed rolling strikes, and said change would require strikes, blockades and disruption.

Businesses in central Paris have begun boarding up their windows in case of more violence, and the luxury group Hermes said it has stepped up security at its French stores. In Orleans, authorities are bracing for a tense weekend, with the far-right National Rally due to hold its annual meeting while unions and left-wing groups plan demonstrations.

A tense country, and markets watching

France was hit on October 17 by some of its worst urban unrest in years, during nationwide protests over energy costs, household budgets and strained public services. Two people have been arrested over an arson attack on Limoges city hall. A third straight night of local curfews has passed without major incidents, giving the government some breathing room before the weekend.

Investors are nervous. The yield on France's 10-year government bonds rose above US Treasury yields on Thursday for the first time since 2013, and France's risk premium over German debt has widened to 165 basis points, the most since 2011, as markets weigh a stalled budget and a possible credit rating downgrade as soon as Friday.

Speaking in Qatar at the end of a Gulf trip, Macron urged the public to keep their heads and repeated his criticism of foreign leaders who blamed immigration for the riots, comments he has called stupid and unacceptable.