Thousands of police fanned out across central Paris and other French cities Saturday ahead of planned “yellow vest” protests, with the government vowing to prevent a repeat of the rioting and looting seen in the capital last week.
Authorities have banned demonstrations in a large area in the west of the city, including the Champs-Elysees, the scene of last week’s rampage by hundreds of black-clad agitators.
Protest bans were also in effect in the centres of Toulouse, Bordeaux, Dijon, Rennes and the southern city of Nice, where Chinese President Xi Jinping is to meet his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron this weekend.
Macron is under pressure to avoid a repeat of last week’s sacking of the Champs-Elysees, where over 100 shops were damaged, looted or set alight during seven hours of rioting by mainly masked, black-clad protesters.
The government has redeployed soldiers from its Sentinelle anti-terror force to guard public buildings on Saturday, freeing up the 6,000 deployed police in Paris to tackle any flare-ups of violence.
The move has drawn fierce criticism from opposition parties, who have accused the government of playing with fire.
On social media, several “yellow vest” leaders urged caution for Saturday, warning demonstrators against appearing to countenance the violence by far-left or far-right infiltrators.
In a YouTube post, truck driver Eric Drouet called on protesters not to try to return to the Champs-Elysees.
“It’s a very, very bad idea. You know what image they’re trying to create of us,” he said, predicting a “quiet Saturday”.