🔴 Live: Some 70,000 security forces will be mobilised for French protests on Saturday, says PM

To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Some 70,000 security forces will be mobilised to keep order at protests throughout France on Saturday, French Prime Minister Laurent Nunez said Friday. His announcement came as French President Emmanuel Macron was due to meet with student organisations in Paris Friday afternoon, for the first time since high school protests began over a month ago. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates. Nuñez says 'there have once again been calls from far-left ahead of this weekend' Nuñez says 70,000 security forces will be mobilised to keep order Nuñez says officials will be 'unyielding toward rioters, looters and those who commit acts of violence' Nuñez says France's local prefects will monitor demonstrations and issue bans or police orders Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez speaks to the press ahead of Saturday's planned protests Paris's Louvre and other top museums will shut down on Saturday over concern about protest violence The Louvre and several other major Paris museums will be closed on Saturday over concerns about potential violence during planned protests, France’s culture ministry said. In a statement to The Associated Press, the ministry said the Orsay and Picasso museums were also among those that will close. Others are taking the same tack. After two days when admission was invite-only, Art Basel Paris opened to the public on Friday — but only for the day, with the threat of unrest prompting organizers on Thursday to cancel the weekend programme. Paris’s Grand Palais is hosting 211 international galleries and their exhibitions for Art Basel, considered one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art fairs. 🎥 Gen Z in Albania, Italy, France and India protesting for 'fairness' FRANCE 24's Jean-Emile Jammine welcomes Gökçe Tuncel, Sociologist and post-doctoral researcher associated with the Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC). For Tuncel, the wave of youth-led protests across France, Albania, India and Italy reveals more than a succession of localised grievances. It signals the emergence of a political consciousness shaped by material insecurity, institutional disillusionment and an increasingly explicit demand for solidarity and social justice. "What is really striking about this Gen Z movement is how clearly young people see their material conditions," Tuncel says. Watch more below ⬇️ 🎥 French shop owners brace for more unrest With further protests expected Saturday, French businesses are preparing for more potential upheaval. While the government promised better police violence over the weekend in case peaceful protests could once again be followed by civil unrest, shop owners are taking matters into their own hands ⬇️ France Unbowed accuses French government of 'authoritarian slide' French far-left party France Unbowed (LFI) has described the measures taken following the October 17 protests — such as bans on demonstrations and curfews — as an “authoritarian slide” and called on the French people to march “peacefully". “Civil liberties cannot be a bargaining chip for an executive branch in disarray,” Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party stated in a press release. “By deciding to ban demonstrations, to choose who has the right — and who does not — to organize them, to impose curfews at the departmental or city level, and to encourage business owners to hire private security, the executive branch is crossing, one by one, the boundaries that separate a democracy from an authoritarian, police state,” LFI said. Macron to announce 'additional decisions' on protests after defence council meeting Macron is due to announce "additional decisions" after hosting the meeting of his defence council, on top of the limited curfews already announced, his office said. Marseille mayor calls for 'police presence' to prevent vandalism Marseille's Mayor Benoît Payan told broadcaster LCI he was thinking of business owners who felt “completely abandoned" during the October 17 protests, adding that he did not wish for looting to happen again on Saturday. “I want a police presence to ensure that no store is ransacked,” he said. 🎥 French authorities seek to ban protests, Macron to meet students Isabelle Vuillet, co-secretary general of the CGT Educ'Action union, is FRANCE 24's guest ⬇️ French businesses, events to close with more weekend protests expected Businesses, cultural events and museums planned to close over the weekend despite curbs on demonstrations as French President Emmanuel Macron seeks to restore order a week after some nationwide protests turned violent. France's main student union, UNEF, has called for rallies on Saturday, while the Yellow Vest movement, an anti-establishment force that emerged in 2018, filed plans this week for a march through central Paris. 'Authoritarian slide': France Unbowed MEP condemns protest restrictions Reacting to a ban on demonstrations not registered by labor unions, Manon Aubry, a Member of the European Parliament from France Unbowed (LFI), criticised what she called an “authoritarian slide” on public broadcaster France Info and said that “the right to protest is being severely undermined today". “I don’t know if we realise just how far down this authoritarian path we’re heading,” she said. French union leader criticises protest restrictions announced by Macron Marylise Léon, general secretary of the major French trade union CFDT, criticised French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to only allow demonstrations organised by unions Saturday. “It is not up to the President of the Republic to decide who is legitimate in filing a notice or proposing a protest route,” she said on the television channel TF1, arguing that this measure “is not likely to calm the anger". French protester files complaint for assault against police officer A 30-year-old French woman filed a complaint against a police officer after being assaulted during a protest in Le Mans, nortwestern France, according to local media. A video shared on social media shows the young woman being pulled by her hair and dragged across the ground by a police officer, before being kicked. “I was holding my little sign like any other protester,” she said. “I don’t think I posed a danger to myself or to anyone else.” French PM to travel to Limoges French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu will be traveling to Limoges Friday, a city particularly hard-hit by the violence on October 17, when its city hall was set on fire. The investigation into the fire gained momentum on Thursday with the arrest of a second suspect in the Creuse department, following the arrest on Tuesday of a first man in the Haute-Vienne department who is now suspected of attempted murder of police officers. Macron to meet with high school student groups French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with representatives from high school student groups at 3pm Friday ahead of a day of planned demonstrations that will take place under heavy security. Lyon and Marseille banned all demonstrations on Saturday ahead of a new round of planned nationwide protests against France's rising cost of living. French President Emmanuel Macron said after meeting with intelligence services that all demonstrations not organised by workers unions would be banned. French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu met with representatives from France's political parties. Manuel Bompard, party coordinator of the left-wing France Unbowed, accused the premier of having wasted their time by refusing to address the demands of the weeks-long student protest movement. A French administrative court suspended a Paris police order banning a demonstration organised by university students. Hundreds of students took part in the peaceful march.