France prepares for new wave of protests with plans to deploy army to secure facilities - Sarmad

The French government plans to tighten security measures ahead of new protests scheduled for next Saturday, by increasing the number of security forces and deploying the military to secure key facilities, while authorities are considering imposing a new curfew in several areas, according to BFMTV.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu pledged to bolster security deployments in preparation for the upcoming protests, aiming to prevent a recurrence of the riots that marred last Saturday’s demonstrations, when security forces confronted groups that carried out looting and vandalism at multiple sites.

Lecornu acknowledged that the security deployment during the October 17 protests was “too static and not mobile enough,” announcing a review of the plan in preparation for future demonstrations.

For his part, French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told the National Assembly that authorities would enhance their deployment in terms of the number of participating forces, response speed, and mobility to pursue groups that disperse to evade security forces.

He added that the objective is to adopt a strategy more focused on rapid intervention and mobility to track down highly mobile, dispersed groups.