France’s highest administrative court ruled Saturday morning that the next planned mass demonstration, labeled “Act III,” may not follow its traditional route through central Paris and must be held along the city’s outskirts, citing a heightened risk to public order. The decision, made hours before the march was to begin at Place de la Bastille, has sharpened a national debate over the balance between the right to protest and state measures to prevent violence.
The Conseil d’État said authorities could not allow the Bastille-to-Nation route because of a “very high risk” that “further major disturbances to public order will occur on [Saturday] on the fringes of the authorised processions, in a tense social and protest-related context, and at a time when numerous calls for violent actions on that day are being circulated on social media,” adding that “the prohibition of this route and the proposal of an alternative … appears necessary and is neither inappropriate nor disproportionate.” The court substituted an alternative route running from Porte de Bagnolet to Porte de Charenton along the capital’s edge; buses headed to the area were rerouted and nearby streets were closed to cars and bikes on Saturday afternoon.
Protesting is protected under the French Constitution, and unions must notify authorities in advance of planned routes, though they do not need permission to assemble, the article reported. Restrictions can be imposed only when authorities can demonstrate a serious safety threat, a threshold that has become the focus of legal fights around the marches.
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On Oct. 24, “Act II” of the protests was already pushed to the city’s outskirts, where hundreds of thousands marched in the rain. The interunion alliance had said “Act III” would follow the long-used Bastille-to-Nation path; Paris police prefect Patrice Faure then announced a ban on demonstrations along that route “for a while,” citing Halloween as an added public-order risk because of potential masks, fake weapons and social media calls to emulate the American film The Purge.
The interunion alliance appealed the prefecture’s restriction to the Paris Administrative Court and initially won. “The judge in chambers begins by recalling the scope of the freedom to demonstrate, which extends to the right to choose the time, place, and modalities of the gathering,” Chirinne Ardakani, a lawyer for the interunion alliance, live-posted from the hearings, adding that the judge found the prefecture’s note to be “vague and unsubstantiated.”
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the prefecture immediately appealed that decision to the Conseil d’État; hearings began Friday night and continued into early Saturday. The higher court reversed the administrative court’s ruling, siding with Nuñez and the prefecture. In its reasoning, the Conseil d’État cited the recent Oct. 17 riots, explicit threats to businesses along the Bastille–Nation route, the additional burden on police resources and the circulation of calls for violence on social media, concluding that the alternative route still preserved the right to protest.
The government deployed roughly 70,000 officers nationwide on Saturday as authorities implemented closures and rerouting. Supporters of the unions say moving demonstrations out of the city center infringes democratic rights and the symbolic purpose of central Paris marches; officials counter that the measures are temporary, targeted responses to concrete security risks.
For reporting on the earlier demonstrations that were diverted to the outskirts, see Courthouse News’ coverage of “Act II.” https://www.courthousenews.com/protests-surge-through-france-in-act-ii-of-mass-mobilizations/
