Paris police reject both October 31 march routes as Emmanuel Macron pushes protests out of city centres and Laurent Nuñez warns of "very high" Halloween violence risk

PARIS.- The Paris police prefecture has rejected both march routes filed for Saturday, October 31, 2026, setting up a tense Halloween weekend in France: the CGT's Bastille-to-Nation route and the Yellow Vests' Bastille-to-Concorde route were both turned down, even as Yellow Vests, the CGT and high-school students prepare to take to the streets. President Emmanuel Macron has ordered that the marches stay out of city centres to protect shops, while Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has warned prefects across France of a "very high" risk of urban violence on Saturday night.

Both rejected routes start at the Place de la Bastille but head in opposite directions. The CGT route, revealed by Europe 1, runs from Bastille to the Place de la Nation in eastern Paris, via Rue de Lyon, Avenue Daumesnil, Place Félix-Éboué, Boulevard de Reuilly, Boulevard de Picpus and Avenue du Trône. The union had already seen the same route approved two days before October 24, only for it to be banned in favour of an imposed route between Porte d'Italie and Porte de Vincennes. On Wednesday, October 28, the inter-union announced that the prefecture had rejected the Bastille-Nation route again, according to L'Humanité. Some outlets report the prefecture may instead propose a route between Porte de Bagnolet and Porte de Charenton, on the edge of Paris — information that has not been officially confirmed.

The Yellow Vests route, filed Tuesday, October 27, according to Le Parisien, would cross central Paris to the Place de la Concorde, with the National Assembly in its sights: Bastille, Boulevard Beaumarchais, Boulevard du Temple, Place de la République, the Grands Boulevards, Place de l'Opéra, Place de la Madeleine and Rue Royale, with departure at 2:00 p.m., according to franceinfo. That path skirts busy shopping districts — exactly what the government wants to avoid. As expected, the prefecture rejected it, according to BFMTV. The coordination had warned that, if rejected, it would consider a complaint for violation of freedom of demonstration or an emergency appeal before the administrative court, according to France 3 Paris Île-de-France.

The Yellow Vests are betting mainly on fixed gatherings for their "act III". Their published calendar calls for a pot-banging rally in front of the National Assembly on Friday, October 30, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., and pot-banging at 7:00 p.m. across France; on Saturday, October 31, sit-ins at 2:00 p.m. in front of the National Assembly, at the start or end of marches, and in front of town halls where there are no marches. The call was read on October 24 on the steps of the Opéra Bastille and presented to the press by coordination members Benjamin Ball and Azelma Sigaux. The movement's message has shifted in two weeks: from fuel prices and the cost of living on October 17 to the defence of public freedoms, demanding the lifting of curfews, amnesty for detained demonstrators and investigations into alleged police violence.

Macron set the line on Monday, October 26, during a visit to Marseille, one of the cities hardest hit by the October 17 damage: the October 31 and November 5 demonstrations must be held outside city centres, to avoid further looting and protect shops. He pointed to October 24 as the precedent — order maintained without depriving anyone of the right to demonstrate — and recalled a support fund for affected shopkeepers and artisans. In Paris, that instruction keeps sectors such as Châtelet-Les Halles, République and Opéra off limits, a rule critics say also pushes the demands out of public view.

Nuñez raised the alarm further in a letter sent Thursday to all prefects, revealed by BFMTV and relayed by Le Journal du Dimanche: the risk of urban violence is "very high" on Saturday, from the start of the night well into the early morning. Intelligence services have detected numerous online calls for gatherings in city centres, using Halloween as a pretext. The minister asks for "very special attention" to gatherings in public squares from 8:00 p.m. and fears "spontaneous marches". The security deployment is promised to be as large as last weekend's: Nuñez promised an "extremely robust" operation, the national police director has asked for a 75% presence rate, the RAID unit will again protect the most exposed public buildings, drones will film the routes and water-cannon vehicles will be systematically deployed, with reinforced identity and vehicle checks, especially in stations and on main roads. The Interior Ministry has not yet officially announced the number of officers, but 70,000 police and gendarmes were deployed across France on October 24.

The student movement is not stopping either. Started in mid-September at a high school in Créteil, in Val-de-Marne, it spread across France, with Paris demonstrations on October 6, October 13 and October 24. Received at Matignon on Monday, October 26, high-school and university organisations won the announcement of the end of Parcoursup, to be replaced by a new system in 2028, with 15,000 additional higher-education places, a 1-billion-euro plan to renovate high schools plus 4 billion in credits, smaller classes capped progressively at 28, and grants rising with inflation. Several student representatives call the announcements too vague and are calling to keep mobilising this Saturday, according to franceinfo. The real test, observers note, will come with the return to class on Monday, November 2 — when school blockades are set to resume — and with a student march notified for Tuesday, November 3, between the Place du Panthéon and the Medef headquarters, ahead of the inter-union general strike on Thursday, November 5, for wages, pensions and public services.

The stakes are clear from the last round: on October 24, demonstrations drew 410,000 people in France, including 110,000 in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry, against nearly 800,000 including 250,000 in the capital, according to the CGT, with 142 arrests in Paris that day — far below the 855 of October 17. Until Saturday, routes can still change: prefecture decisions are usually published the day before, sometimes the same morning.

Fuentes: SortiraParis (29-30 oct 2026, con BFMTV, Europe 1, Le Parisien, L'Humanité, franceinfo, France 3), Metro Puerto Rico (26 oct 2026), El Economista (26 oct 2026).