France Holds Nationwide Protests Under Massive Security Deployment

Overview

• A nationwide day of mobilization took place Saturday as gilets jaunes, trade unions, students and school pupils marched across France under a roughly 70,000‑strong police and gendarmerie deployment.
• In Paris the administrative tribunal rejected unions' emergency appeal against a last‑minute change to a Porte d'Italie–Porte de Vincennes route, and reporting diverged on whether some organizers ultimately accepted the imposed itinerary.
• Prefectures issued widespread bans, curfews and limits on objects to prevent repeat violence while administrative courts in places such as Marseille and Limoges partially suspended some of those measures.
• Orléans hosted the Rassemblement National congress under an exceptional security cordon of about 3,000 police and gendarmes, with a large authorized counter‑demonstration and a curfew for minors in place.
• Judicial follow‑ups continued: two men were remanded over the Limoges town‑hall fire and the IGPN opened an inquiry into a photographer's injury, while boarded shops and museum closures underline the economic and political strain on the government ahead of the presidential campaign.