French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday, October 22, that "illegitimate" protests will be banned in the coming days, blaming "seditious" ultra-left groups for the unrest that has rattled France. "Last Saturday we had political and seditious acts by ultra-left groups whose aim is to bring down the Republic," Macron said after a security council meeting at the Élysée with intelligence chiefs and ministers, according to Reuters.
What the ban means
Under the announced measure, regional administrators — prefects — will be instructed to ban protests from groups deemed to lack legitimacy. "If people without legitimacy request to hold a protest, regional administrators will ban it… This is not the time, and France wants to regain calm," Macron said, according to reporting by CHOSUNBIZ. Union-organized marches would still be allowed, but rerouted outside city centres. A defence council meeting was set for Friday to finalize the measures. A full state of emergency has been ruled out, according to Reuters.
The announcement lands amid some of the worst disorder France has seen in years. On October 17, the margins of nationwide protests drawing more than 500,000 people over the cost of living turned violent: around 3,000 shops were looted, Limoges City Hall was burned, and Lyon's tourist office was torched. The government has acknowledged that police "lost control" in places. Bans are already multiplying: Lyon and Marseille have banned all Saturday protests and extended curfews, Paris has a curfew in place around République and Les Halles through October 26, and Nice, Montpellier, Lille and Grenoble have issued bans of their own, according to Reuters, Al Jazeera and Le Monde. Police presence is being raised 20% for Saturday; the Louvre, Musée d'Orsay and Picasso museum were closed, and Art Basel Paris closed early. Some 2,700 people are in custody, 217 have been convicted and jailed, and 1,000 are being prosecuted, according to figures reported by Al Jazeera.
Two sides, sharply divided
The left has condemned the plan. Jean-Luc Mélenchon blamed "non-stop brutal repression," while LFI deputy Éric Coquerel called it "an attack on freedom." The Ligue des droits de l'Homme condemned the measure, and NGOs are preparing constitutional challenges up to the Conseil d'État, according to Al Jazeera and Le Monde. Unions and student groups including UNEF, alongside Yellow Vest activists, are planning Saturday marches and building toward a November 5 general strike.
The right says Macron is not going far enough. Marine Le Pen accused the president of being "too soft and lacking authority," describing an administration "running on fumes, exhausted and disoriented," according to Al Jazeera and CNA.
The Trump feud
The unrest has also turned into a diplomatic spat. On October 19, U.S. President Donald Trump said Paris was "going to be a Muslim city very soon," blaming "migrants, jihadists, and communists" for the riots. In Doha on October 21, Macron fired back, calling the comments "as unacceptable as they are stupid" and suggesting some were AI-generated fakes — when asked whether he meant Trump, he answered only "among others," according to USA Today, The Statesman and ABP Live.
Legally, the ban looks uncertain. Students with a court injunction marched in Paris on October 22 despite restrictions, and in 2019 the Constitutional Council already struck down pre-emptive individual protest bans in the "anti-rioters" law. Whether the new measure survives contact with the courts — and with the streets — will be tested as early as Saturday.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Hitman (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources: Reuters (Oct 22), Al Jazeera (Oct 22), Le Monde (Oct 23).