Overview
- Authorities mobilised about 70,000 police and gendarmes on Saturday, deploying RAID and specialist units plus helicopters, armoured vehicles, water cannon and soldiers to patrol sensitive sites.
- Major Paris cultural institutions, including the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Picasso Museum and the Grand Palais, closed for the day while Art Basel cancelled its weekend programme and other events were called off.
- Police made mass pre-emptive arrests and seizures, with Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez reporting about 135 arrests by midday and confiscations of fireworks, metal balls, a katana and other improvised weapons.
- The unrest began with high‑school blockades over staff shortages, overcrowded classrooms and broken facilities and has widened into nationwide protests over rising living costs and access to higher education.
- Rights groups and unions warn that bans on demonstrations and heavy policing risk curbing the constitutional right to protest, while the unrest is raising major political stakes ahead of the 2027 presidential campaign.