Gatherings near the Élysée Palace and Louvre banned in Paris — Deutsche Welle

In Paris, France, police have banned protest participants from gathering near the Élysée Palace, Place de la Bastille and both chambers of parliament. The restrictions also apply to several tourist areas, including those near the Louvre and the Champs-Élysées, Deutsche Welle reports.

The ban will be in force on Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. local time. France’s capital is also preparing for large-scale protests expected this weekend. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has already promised a massive deployment of security forces.

Unrest after student protests

French authorities are trying to reassure the public after violent unrest last weekend. According to DW, the crisis began with student protests over high prices and demands for education reform. The situation later escalated: masked people looted shops and clashed with police.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez acknowledged on Monday that the authorities had lost control of the situation and had not anticipated the scale of the violence. After two relatively calm nights in the country, politicians in France and beyond used footage of burning cars, smashed shop windows and looted buildings to pressure the government of President Emmanuel Macron.

More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.

Macron responded to Trump’s statements

US President Donald Trump linked the unrest to migrants, jihadists and communists. He also said that he had warned Macron about immigration, but that the French president had allegedly refused to close the borders.

During a visit to Qatar on Wednesday, Macron said that foreign leaders were using the situation in France for their own electoral purposes. Asked whether his remarks referred to Trump, he replied that they concerned him as well, among others. Macron also said that information about the crisis had been manipulated, including through the use of AI-generated images of events that had not actually occurred.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen called Macron’s explanation conspiratorial. She said that footage of the unrest last Saturday reflected, in her view, the real state of France after ten years of Macron’s rule.