Paris Braces for a Showdown Over October 31 Marches as Unions and Yellow Vests File Central Routes and Authorities Weigh a Ban

 

Paris is heading for another showdown over the right to march through the city center. On Wednesday, October 28, both the CGT union and the Coordination des Gilets jaunes formally declared central Paris routes for Saturday, October 31 — and the Paris police prefecture must now decide whether to validate them, reroute them, or ban them outright.

The CGT filed a route from Place de la Bastille to Place de la Nation. The Yellow Vests filed a route from Bastille to Place de la Concorde via Opéra — through some of the busiest shopping districts in the capital, with the National Assembly announced as the destination. The march is due to start at 2 p.m., according to franceinfo.

A decision the prefecture has already made twice before

Nothing is certain yet. The prefecture had not responded as of Tuesday, and it has already rejected proposed central routes on the previous two days of mobilization. On Saturday, October 24, the route initially planned between Bastille and Nation was replaced by one between Porte d'Italie and Porte de Vincennes, and the Bastille-to-Opéra route sought by the Yellow Vests was banned, citing risks to public order.

Organizers say they are prepared to fight this time. David Libeskind, a lawyer for the Yellow Vest coordination group, warned that if the request is denied, the movement will file a complaint for infringement of the freedom to demonstrate or seek an urgent ruling from the administrative court.

President Emmanuel Macron has called for bans on city-centre protests, and Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has ordered the large security posture used last weekend to be kept in place. Authorities cite social-media calls for disorder and the Halloween timing as factors that raise the risk, while organizers say a refusal would be an obstruction of the right to protest.

Why October 31 matters

The October 31 marches are the next flashpoint in a protest wave that began in mid-September in French high schools and exploded into some of the worst violence France has seen in years on October 17, when more than 550,000 people marched nationwide, thousands of businesses were damaged and looted, and more than 2,000 people were arrested.

A nationwide deployment of 70,000 officers signals the government's intent to keep demonstrations out of central Paris. A separate student demonstration has also been filed for November 3, and unions have called a general strike for November 5.

The prefecture's decision — expected before Saturday — will determine whether the capital's center fills with marchers, or whether the standoff moves, once again, into the courts.