France to Deploy Army Before Weekend Protests as Curfews Extended

Soldiers join the police for October 24

French authorities will put soldiers on the streets before the next round of protests on Saturday, October 24, and they extended localised curfews through the week. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told the National Assembly on Tuesday that troops from Operation Sentinelle would deploy “as a substitute to interior security forces ... mostly to free police and gendarmes in their mission to maintain order.” Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu called the coming police deployment “massive” and set one objective: “an immediate return to order.”

The decision is the government’s answer to the night of October 17, when protests over living costs, fuel prices, school conditions and public services turned into some of the worst street violence France has seen in years. Shops were looted in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nice and Strasbourg. A historic town hall burned in Limoges. “We all feel anger and shame tonight,” President Emmanuel Macron said in a televised address the following evening, drawing a line between protesters with legitimate demands and “those who destroyed, smashed and looted.”

Nunez apologised for the state’s failures that weekend. “I deeply regret what happened. I accept my share of responsibility,” he said, after offering his resignation and having it refused by Macron. The election to choose Macron’s successor is set for April-May 2027, which is why the government is treating Saturday as a test of its ability to keep order.

What the October 17 protests left behind

The base rate is easy to lose in the footage. Between 550,000 and 800,000 people marched nationwide on October 17 — the interior ministry counted about 550,000, the CGT union put it at 800,000 — and the overwhelming majority did so peacefully. The interior ministry reported 2,397 arrests and 997 injured police officers and gendarmes, seven seriously. Paris alone recorded 855 arrests, a figure officials called a record. Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said 149 people were in detention awaiting trial, with around 2,500 still held for questioning.

The demonstrations began in mid-September among lycee pupils — France’s secondary schools for 15- to 18-year-olds — angry about teacher shortages and dilapidated buildings; a teachers’ union survey found more than half of schools short-staffed this year. By October 17 the marches had absorbed Yellow Vest groups, climate activists, farmers and union members, all converging on one complaint: the cost of living. The government’s 2027 budget, with spending cuts and revenue measures aimed at a heavy debt load, gave the anger a target.

Then came the exceptions that defined the weekend. A fire gutted Limoges’ 1883 town hall, collapsing its roof and belfry, and local prefect Maurice Barate called the attackers “a wild horde.” Police arrested a suspect on Tuesday; officials said he was on a security watchlist and belonged to an ultra-left group. In Lyon, the tourist office was torched. In Marseille, masked groups briefly stormed the city hall shouting “it’s the revolution, we’re taking the Bastille.” In Saint-Etienne, a 17-year-old lost a hand to a crowd-control grenade.

“It’s like we had a war,” Mehmet Ozeden, a 78-year-old resident of central Paris, told reporters amid burnt barricades and charred bicycles. Paris deputy mayor Lamia El Aaraje said the capital had seen “a level of violence that we have never, I believe, seen before.”

Curfews, block by block

Paris police renewed a curfew Tuesday night from 11pm to 6am around the Place de la Republique and the Les Halles shopping district, according to RTE, following an earlier order Monday that ran from 9pm to 4am. The prefecture also banned public gatherings from early evening near the Elysee palace, the parliament and Senate, the Champs-Elysees, Place Vendome and the main stations. Until Thursday it is illegal to carry petrol or gas canisters and fireworks, or to wear protective gear such as helmets near schools.

Other cities followed with their own overnight orders:

• Marseille: 10pm to 5am, nightly through Friday.
• Bordeaux and Nice: several-day overnight measures.
• Lyon: a nightly curfew similar to Marseille’s.
• Lille: a curfew limited to minors.

Lecornu is deliberately keeping the restrictions local. He told reporters Monday that a state of emergency “could be done” if necessary, but that “curfews ... seem better suited to the situation,” and he said the targeted orders had “helped keep the night calm.” New measures will be decided nightly by prefects in coordination with mayors.

Photo by ev on Unsplash

Operation Sentinelle, explained

The force being called up was created in January 2015, after the Charlie Hebdo attack, as France’s standing domestic counter-terrorism operation. Operation Sentinelle can mobilise up to 10,000 soldiers, with about 7,000 on permanent deployment guarding stations, airports, places of worship and tourist sites, as Le Parisien detailed on the force’s tenth anniversary.

Nunez said the soldiers deployed Saturday will take over static guard duties so police and gendarmes can concentrate on mobile crowd control — the exact gap exposed on October 17, when he admitted units were “not mobile enough.” Sentinelle has been used at demonstrations before, and not without objection: the force was deployed around Yellow Vest protests in 2019, when critics noted that soldiers are not trained for contact with crowds. The government is framing this weekend’s role as guarding sites, not confronting protesters, a distinction Nunez repeated before lawmakers.

Nunez also said the government is weighing bans on unauthorised demonstrations and on declared protests judged likely to spin out of control. “We obviously need to be better at anticipating protests as they unfold,” he said, because the October 17 deployments “ended up asymmetrical with the number of participants.”

The fast-moving legal response

On the legislative side, the government’s “casseurs-payeurs” bill moved through the Senate law committee on October 21 and heads to the floor on October 27. The text creates a new collective civil liability: someone who stays in a violent crowd after police warnings could be ordered to pay up to 10,000 euros for damage caused by the group, without prosecutors having to prove that individual broke anything, as TF1 Info has explained.

Family allowances and housing aid could be recovered to settle unpaid sums, and the committee widened the mechanism to include the RSA income support. Amendments also allow banning convicted foreigners from French territory for certain serious offences. Senate president Gerard Larcher said France had been “taken in flagrant weakness” on October 17. Left-wing opponents call the text unconstitutional; communist senator Fabien Gay warned that “no demonstration will be able to take place in this country” if it passes.

Political blame has run alongside the security response. Lecornu says far-left groups are trying to “orchestrate deep unrest” before the election. Jean-Luc Melenchon, the hard-left candidate, has demanded proof. Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally says legitimate grievances were “held hostage by the far left.” Polls suggest the April-May 2027 vote could come down to those two.

The economic bill and Europe’s spillover

The financial damage is still being counted. Trade and Small Businesses Minister Serge Papin said at least 3,000 businesses were affected; the chambers of commerce counted more than 2,000 directly hit and put the damage in the hundreds of millions of euros. Carrefour said 50 of its stores were damaged and 20 looted, for tens of millions of euros in losses. Markets noticed too: the yield on benchmark 10-year French government bonds touched its highest level in 24 years on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

The unrest has travelled. Italy’s cabinet approved 500 extra soldiers for Milan and a new offence of “violent participation in a demonstration” after 271 people were detained there, The Guardian reports, while luxury shops such as Chanel and Dior cleared their windows. Belgium, Portugal, Spain and Albania have all seen demonstrations over housing, prices and public services, and UN human rights chief Volker Turk condemned “all acts of violence” while urging states to protect peaceful assembly. The United States, China, Germany and several other governments issued travel advice. Sunday’s NFL game in Paris between the New Orleans Saints and the Pittsburgh Steelers will proceed under heightened security.

Photo by ev on Unsplash

What to watch before the weekend

The next flashpoint is Saturday. The Yellow Vests have formally notified a rally at Place de la Bastille for October 24, dubbing it “Act II,” and published a map of demonstrations across the country. The UNEF student union has called for further protests on Saturday, and unions and student groups have set November 5 for another nationwide day. Lecornu is due to meet union representatives on Wednesday morning to discuss security.

If you are in France this weekend, one practical step matters more than the politics: check your local prefecture’s curfew map before going out after 9pm or 10pm, and assume central Paris routes will be sealed off with a visible police and military presence on Saturday. Businesses affected by the looting should watch for the government’s support fund, which Lecornu has promised alongside measures to recover costs from those found responsible.