Paris police have announced a ban on demonstrations in several key areas of the city, including the Elysee Presidential Palace, Bastille Square, both chambers of parliament, and tourist areas such as the Louvre and the Champs-Elysees, as France prepares for further protests on Thursday. The restriction will be in force from 08:00 to 20:00 local time. The measure comes after violent unrest engulfed the country last weekend, which began with student protests over high prices and education reforms but quickly escalated into shop looting and clashes with police. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez admitted that the authorities “lost control”. Large protests are expected this weekend as well, with Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu promising a “massive” security deployment.
While the country has had two relatively calm nights, images of burned cars and destroyed shops have been used by politicians inside and outside France to increase pressure on the government of President Emmanuel Macron. U.S. President Donald Trump blamed the unrest on “immigrants, jihadists and communists”, saying they had “invaded, looted and burned (France) to the ground”. Trump also claimed he had warned Macron about immigration, but the French president refused to close the borders.
During a visit to Qatar on Wednesday, Macron responded to Trump, suggesting that the American leader and possibly Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were trying to gain political capital from the unrest in France. Macron stressed that “there are people who are campaigning at France’s expense – leaders who are in campaign mode, whether here in the region or on the other side of the Atlantic”, confirming that Trump was “among others”. He added that information about the crisis had been manipulated, including “AI-generated images depicting scenes that never happened”, leading to “unacceptable and equally pointless comments from many people, including foreign leaders”. Macron denied claims of “hordes of immigrants and Islamists”. His far-right rival, Marine Le Pen, called Macron’s account “conspiratorial”, stating that the images show “the sad reality of what France has become after 10 years of Macronist governance”.
Taken from Deutsche Welle