France has deployed 70,000 personnel across the country to contain a new day of mobilizations called against the poor situation of public education, the high cost of living, and police violence, in a deployment that the Interior Ministry presents as exceptional due to the added risk of disturbances on the eve of Halloween.
The French National Police confirmed in a statement released on social media that the objective of the operation is to “guarantee the security of the gatherings and prevent any overflow.” The deployment repeats the figure from the previous weekend.
Controls at urban accesses and reinforced surveillance throughout the day
Since Friday night, security forces have implemented controls at the accesses to urban centers and peripheral shopping centers, on main traffic routes, and around public transport stations. The Government maintains that these filters aim to “detect and confiscate any object susceptible to being used to commit acts of violence or degradation,” and has specified that they will be maintained throughout the day at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office.
The Gendarmerie, for its part, has mobilized departmental units, mobile gendarmes, reservists, and other specialized resources to fulfill its mission of protecting the population and property. The Ministry of the Interior has presented the deployment as a tool to maintain public order during authorized demonstrations and has defended “firmness against disturbances to preserve the freedom of demonstration.” The ministry considers that the exceptional nature of the operation is explained by its coincidence with Halloween, a date on which it expects more tension in the streets.
Halloween raises the risk and limits authorized marches
In addition to the 70,000 agents, specialized units and specific means are added: drones, helicopters, canine units, 26 armored vehicles, and 15 water cannons. Prefectures have authorized demonstrations mainly outside urban centers, in areas where disturbances have been observed or are feared, and will only allow gatherings whose organizers have provided sufficient security guarantees.
Instead, nighttime gatherings are prohibited and "will be dispersed" if they are held despite the order. The Interior Ministry states that calls for the night of October 31 are circulating on social media, especially starting at 8:00 p.m. The Ministry maintains that these messages are neither demands nor celebrations, but rather incitements to commit serious disturbances, with explicit calls for violence, insurrection, vandalism, and looting.
The Minister of the Interior, Laurent Núñez, has supported the official doctrine based on "firmness, rapid response, and greater mobility of internal security forces," although he has warned that excesses will not be tolerated. According to his approach, the agents' mission will be to disperse at-risk groups and, if necessary, arrest them, while authorized marches will remain under supervision until their completion.
