France: Macron says only union-organised marches will be allowed on Saturday; parties criticise Lecornu meeting; unions call strikes for 5 November

Update, 5:09pm GMT Thursday 22 October: After a security council at the Élysée with the intelligence services on Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron said only demonstrations organised by trade unions would be authorised on Saturday. “The general recommendation is that there should be no demonstrations in the coming days,” he said, adding that “this is not the moment, because we want a return to calm”, France 24 reported, citing AFP (our translation). Marches planned for Saturday in Lyon and Marseille were banned, and in Paris a single march between Bastille and Nation was authorised. The Interior Ministry said police and gendarme numbers would be 20% higher than the previous weekend.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu met party leaders at Matignon on Thursday in a meeting on policing. Green presidential candidate Marine Tondelier said: “We are leaving with a lot of anger.” Manuel Bompard of La France insoumise said the meeting had made the country “lose time” because Lecornu did not address the protesters’ demands, and his party’s representatives left before the end, franceinfo reported. Socialist-backed candidate Raphaël Glucksmann said they received “no clear answers”. The Republicans’ leader Bruno Retailleau repeated his call for a state of emergency and questioned the timing of the presidential election’s second round on 2 May. National Rally senator Edwige Diaz said the government had given assurances that the party’s congress in Orléans this weekend could go ahead safely; between 20,000 and 30,000 counter-protesters are expected there on Saturday, AFP reported. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said 217 of the 2,700 people taken into custody after the violence had been jailed.

Earlier report:

Leaders of France’s five representative union confederations (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFTC and CFE-CGC) met Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu at Matignon on Wednesday 21 October, four days after protests on 17 October that were followed by violence and looting in several cities. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez and Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou also attended.

“The Prime Minister, the government did not announce any measures to us,” CGT general secretary Sophie Binet said after the meeting, which lasted about two and a half hours, RFI reported, citing AFP (our translation). She called for “the widest possible mobilisation” on 5 November, a day of strikes and protests already called by the unions, and for workers to hold general assemblies “to generalise the strike”, franceinfo reported. CFDT leader Marylise Léon said the government was “not really in tempo”, and FO said in a statement that “the answers are still awaited”. High-school groups, who were not invited, said they would keep protesting.

The Paris police prefecture banned a student march planned for Thursday, citing the organiser’s “inability to prevent abuses” at earlier protests, and the Rhône prefect banned a march in Lyon. Protests in Toulon on Saturday were also banned. Night curfews in parts of Paris, Lyon and Marseille were renewed for Wednesday night, franceinfo reported. Nuñez said “several tens of thousands” of people were expected on Saturday at counter-protests against the National Rally (RN) congress in Orléans.

Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said 174 people had been jailed, franceinfo reported. President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Qatar, said he would hold a meeting with intelligence services and ministers on Thursday and that “nothing justifies violence” in a democracy. Lecornu is due to meet party leaders and the mayors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon on Thursday.

Figures as of 7:46pm GMT Wednesday. See also: our previous report on the protest bans.