France to Deploy 70,000 Security Personnel as Protests Coincide With Halloween

French authorities will deploy around 70,000 security personnel across the country on Saturday (October 31, 2026), matching the number mobilised a week earlier, as a protest movement that began over the cost of living holds a third consecutive weekend of demonstrations — this time coinciding with Halloween.

The protests bring together Yellow Vest activists, trade unions, and high school and university students. The movement initially focused on the rising cost of living, inequality and deteriorating learning conditions. After a security clampdown in which some demonstrators were seriously injured, organisers broadened their demands to include greater protection of civil liberties and the right to protest.

More than 40 metro stations are due to close in the capital and tram services will be disrupted. In several cities, shops and other businesses have boarded up their storefronts. Across the plywood protecting one Paris business, a message in black paint read: "Behind these boards, there is neither power nor an enemy. Just a family and its work."

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on Thursday (October 29, 2026) that there was a "very high risk of public disorder". Demonstrations would be permitted, he said, but not in city centres. A police source described "considerable nervousness" within the authorities. "There is no reason to think this will go smoothly," the source said.

The Paris police prefecture sought to prevent demonstrators from marching between Bastille and Nation in eastern Paris, but a court overturned the ban. A night-time curfew will apply in the Republique and Chatelet-Les Halles neighbourhoods from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The mayor's office said more than 1,000 municipal workers would be mobilised over the weekend to clean public spaces.

Mr. Nunez said authorities had detected social media calls for Halloween gatherings on Saturday evening, some urging protesters to spark a "revolution"; other posts called on people to dress up for a "night of darkness". He warned that protesters would not be allowed to wear masks concealing their faces.

Business owners have voiced concern about the timing. "Shopkeepers can't wait for Saturday to be over," Alain Di Crescenzo, president of France's chamber of commerce, told broadcaster France Inter. "The information we have is that Halloween is not helping matters, because we're going to have people wearing masks."

In Paris, customers crowded into a costume shop on Friday (October 30, 2026). Manager Didier Jarsale said it was not his job to "ask every customer what they intend to do with what they buy". "We're not here to act as police officers," he said.

The demonstrations are taking place in an increasingly tense political climate, with presidential elections six months away and far-right leader Marine Le Pen leading opinion polls. President Emmanuel Macron said this week that it was "not normal" for France to be in such a state of "turmoil" so close to a presidential election.

The unrest follows weeks of demonstrations by high school students campaigning for better learning conditions. Authorities have acknowledged security and intelligence failures that contributed to the clashes, widespread looting and vandalism of October 17, when images of confrontations, looted shops and burning public buildings were broadcast around the world. Since then, they have moved to reassert control by restricting demonstrations and imposing curfews in several cities.