A car burns at Republique square during a protest against rising living costs, joining students' grievances, in Paris, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026. (AP Photo)
Police banned protests in parts of Paris on Oct. 22, as France braced for more demonstrations just days after student and other rallies degenerated into some of the worst street unrest in years.
Oct. 21’s announcement came after President Emmanuel Macron took an apparent swipe at his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump for exploiting the riots for political advantage in the U.S. midterm election battle.
The Paris ban will last from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and apply to key landmarks in the French capital, including the Elysee presidential palace, both houses of parliament, as well as tourist havens such as the Louvre museum and the Champs-Elysees.
Other areas where rallies will be prohibited include the Bastille and Republique squares, and the Chatelet-Les Halles shopping area which was heavily targeted by looters over the weekend.
France has admitted it “lost control” in the frenzy of street violence that erupted last weekend, when masked youths clashed with police, looted shops and vandalized public buildings.
As his government struggled to contain a crisis that has damaged France’s image abroad and rattled financial markets six months before presidential elections, Macron implied that Trump, and possibly Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also fighting an election campaign, made “stupid comments” on the unrest for political gain.
“There are people who campaign at France’s expense, leaders who are in campaign mode, whether here in the region or on the other side of the Atlantic,” he told reporters in Doha.
Trump has sought to link the unrest to “migrants, jihadists, and communists” as he campaigned for his Republican party in the United States on his anti-immigration messaging.
He also on Oct. 21 hailed French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who shares his ideologies.
