France mobilises 70,000 police as museums shut ahead of protests

Paris — France will deploy 70,000 police officers and gendarmes across the country on Saturday, backed by helicopters, armoured vehicles and water cannon, as the government braces for a second weekend of protests over the high cost of living. The Louvre, the Orsay and Picasso museums and the Grand Palais will all close, the Culture Ministry said.

The mobilisation, confirmed by Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez at a news conference on Friday, follows what The Hindu described as France's most violent unrest in years. Last Saturday's demonstrations saw fires lit, public buildings stormed, shop windows smashed, looting and clashes with police.

Saturday's marches are expected to draw students, members of the CGT labour union and activists from the "yellow vest" movement, whose demonstrations against social injustice shook France in 2018 and 2019. Nuñez said elite police units would secure public buildings such as city halls in what he called a "highly mobile" operation.

"There have been numerous calls from radical far-left groups on social media to commit acts of violence and vandalism," Nuñez said, promising police would be "absolutely uncompromising", with a "very firm approach to making arrests".

The Culture Ministry, in a statement to the Associated Press, instructed all institutions under its authority to take whatever measures are needed to ensure "visitor safety, staff protection and the preservation of artworks". Art Basel Paris, which brings together 211 international galleries at the Grand Palais, opened to the public on Friday only and cancelled its weekend programme. "This decision has not been taken lightly," organisers said.

Authorities will also be watching Orléans, about 110 kilometres south of Paris, where around 50 organisations — unions, left-wing parties, student and anti-racism groups — have called a demonstration against the far right on the sidelines of Marine Le Pen's party congress. The Loiret prefect, Hugues Moutouh, said 20,000 to 30,000 demonstrators were expected. Le Pen, whom opinion polls place as front-runner in next spring's presidential election, accused left-wing groups of trying to disrupt a democratic party gathering. The standoff echoes the political fight over protest bans in French cities earlier this autumn.

The immediate test comes on Saturday itself: whether the deployment contains the marches, and whether the Orléans protest passes without incident. Beyond that, the government's handling of the unrest will feed directly into the campaign for next spring's presidential election.