France to deploy 70,000 police ahead of new protests

France will deploy some 70,000 police nationwide as it braces for new protests this weekend after some of the worst urban violence in years erupted on the sidelines of demonstrations a week ago, the government said Friday. President Emmanuel Macron, who according to aides is postponing a visit later this month to Nigeria and Senegal amid the crisis, held a meeting of his defence council of top ministers and officials and was to meet security forces.

He was also set to host for the first time representatives of high school pupils, whose protests over conditions at their schools sparked the movement that has broadened into a nationwide show of anger against the government at the rising cost of living. Some 70,000 security personnel will be deployed on Saturday, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said at a press conference in Paris, warning that calls for violence and looting were circulating on social media.

The protests have come at a critical moment for France six months ahead of elections to replace Macron, with a new poll underlining far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is the frontrunner and showing her position has been strengthened by the latest events. Adding to tensions, Le Pen is at the weekend due to host her National Rally (RN) party congress in Orleans, with thousands of supporters expected but local authorities fearing clashes as opponents head to the city.

Nunez was expected to visit the city Friday to “inspect the security arrangements” at the request of the prime minister’s office, it said. At Macron’s meeting with students, “we will present our demands to him — which remain the same: the state of school infrastructure and an overhaul of the Parcoursup (university admissions) system,” Nathanael Combary, president of Renouveau Lyceen (High School Renewal) told AFP.

Macron’s government has sought to draw a line between the legitimate demands of protesters and the looting, burning and ransacking that erupted on the sidelines of protests last Saturday. In a judicial response of unprecedented firmness, courts have already sent 217 people, half of them first-time offenders, to prison over the events on Saturday, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

On Thursday, Macron called for “the utmost severity” against “acts of delinquency”, accusing “ultra-left” groups of having sought to “bring down the republic” last weekend. – ‘Police have a responsibility’ – On Saturday, a second round of demonstrations is expected across France. Lyon’s city centre in the southeast will be off-limits to demonstrators this weekend, while in Paris protesters will only be allowed to march a limited route between Bastille and Nation squares.

Authorities in Marseille had also banned protests but announced Friday that a union-organised demonstration would be allowed on an “exceptional basis” — the only one authorised in the southern Bouches-du-Rhone department. They also reversed a decision to suspend all public transport in the city on Saturday. But in the capital, leading museums including the Louvre will be closed on Saturday while the Art Basel art fair is being cut short.

Some 20 percent more members of the security forces will be deployed this weekend after heavy criticism of the anticipation and intelligence gathering of police last week. “In a country governed by the rule of law, the police have a responsibility both to ensure that protests can take place peacefully and safely and to protect the public from violent disorder,” said Eva Cosse, senior Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch, expressing alarm over reports of children being severely injured by crowd-control weapons.

The violence has tarnished the image of France ahead of elections that could be a turning point in its modern history, with the government’s debt pile also troubling investors. A new poll by Harris Interactive for M6/RTL made after the violence showed Le Pen soaring ahead on 33-35 percent in the first round of voting for the presidential elections.

It predicted that hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon was on course to face her in the run-off where Le Pen would emerge as an easy winner on some 70 percent of the vote.