France to deploy 70,000 police before Saturday protests

France plans to deploy up to 70,000 officers nationwide on Saturday, Oct. 24, as Paris museums shut and retailers boarded up before new protests, RFI reported in a news article.

The deployment follows demonstrations by more than half a million people across France last weekend, equal to roughly one officer for every seven prior demonstrators if turnout were similar, according to Atlas360 calculations.

Around 3,000 shops across France were damaged or looted during unrest a week earlier, RFI said. The figure frames why authorities and businesses are taking visible precautions before another expected large turnout.

Culture and commerce close

The Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Picasso Museum and Grand Palais closed for the day, interrupting visits in the capital. The Grand Palais closure also paused access to a major Cézanne exhibition.

Art Basel, the contemporary art fair, cancelled its weekend programme because of the threat of unrest, leaving Friday as its only public day, RFI reported. Atlas360 reported on Oct. 24 that the NFL also scrapped Paris fan-event celebrations over heightened security risks, while Sunday’s regular-season game at Stade de France remained scheduled.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the police and gendarme deployment would be supported by helicopters, armoured vehicles and water cannons, according to RFI. President Emmanuel Macron defended the security measures as needed to protect city centres, businesses and public buildings, RFI said.

The unrest a week earlier included masked groups looting shops, setting cars alight and attacking public buildings on the sidelines of demonstrations, according to RFI. Damage extended beyond Paris, including a suspected arson attack that nearly destroyed Limoges’s 19th-century town hall, RFI reported.

Businesses near Place de la République, one of the flashpoints during last Saturday’s unrest, installed wooden boards over shopfronts and a bank branch. Paris police prefect Patrice Faure first urged shopkeepers to hire security guards, then clarified that protecting businesses and owners remained the government’s responsibility, RFI said.

Security measures draw criticism

The protest movement began last month at a secondary school southeast of Paris over staff shortages. It later spread through suburbs and other parts of France, with students calling for more funding and staffing, especially in lower-income neighbourhoods, and for changes to the university admissions system.

The demonstrations have since broadened into protests over living costs and inequality, adding pressure on the government before next spring’s presidential election. “The money is now concentrated in the hands of very few people,” Victoria Ambrosini, an art critic and art teacher at Saint-Denis University, told RFI. “And it’s not possible anymore.”

Rallies are also planned in Marseille, while local authorities have banned some gatherings in Lyon, Nice and Montpellier. Trade unions criticised those bans as violations of the constitutional right to freedom of expression, RFI said.

Paris is the immediate test on Oct. 24, when a fresh march is scheduled and RFI said another large turnout is expected. The observable question is whether the 70,000-officer deployment prevents a repeat of the previous weekend’s damage to shops, vehicles and public buildings.

The next check on cultural and sporting disruption comes on Sunday, when the NFL regular-season game at Stade de France remains scheduled after related Paris fan events were cancelled. Any further cancellations would point to security precautions extending beyond Saturday’s marches.

The broader political test is next spring’s presidential election, which RFI said is approaching as the protest movement widens from school staffing complaints into living-cost and inequality grievances. The government’s handling of bans, policing and public-order costs will be judged against that calendar.

Source: RFI news article, Oct. 24, 2026; Atlas360 background, Oct. 24, 2026