Major museums in Paris closed Saturday, while authorities deployed a large police force across France for a new round of protests, seeking to prevent a repeat of last week’s violent unrest that shocked the country. According to Associated Press scenes of looting, burned-out cars and attacks on public buildings left the impression that the government had lost control, as groups of masked vandals targeted businesses in Paris and other city centres. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said as many as 70,000 officers would be deployed nationwide, along with helicopters, armored vehicles and water cannons. In central Paris, a few dozen gendarmes were stationed beneath the Arc de Triomphe and along the nearby avenues. A massive turnout is expected again after more than half a million took to the streets last week. Major museums including the Louvre, the Orsay Museum, Picasso Museum and Grand Palais — where a major Cézanne exhibit is on display — were closed Saturday. In a last minute change Friday, police moved the route of the Paris march to the city’s southeastern edges, away from central neighborhoods such as Place de la République, where last Saturday’s violence left shops ransacked and cars burned. President Emmanuel Macron, a centrist, has entered the final months of his term, with his popularity at its lowest since he took office in 2017. He has said that the measures are needed to protect city centers, businesses and public buildings. Thousands of people gathered Saturday morning for an anti-far-right protest in the city of Orléans, about 110 kilometers south of Paris. The broader protest movement began with students demanding better conditions in schools and has expanded into demonstrations over rising living costs, wages and pensions, just months before the vote to choose Macron’s successor.
Source: Kanal13
