France bans weekend march over riot fears

Last weekend saw widespread rioting and looting across France - in recent days things have become a lot calmer and the riots appear to have subsided.

However, plans for marches over the weekend have raised tensions.

Citizen marches

A collective of around 90 mostly left-wing organisations - including Amnesty, Greenpeace and the hard-left La France Insoumise party - have called for 'citizen marches' to take place around the country on Saturday to express the "grief and anger" of disadvantaged areas of France on issues such as police violence and social exclusion.

They are also calling for changes to the 2017 law, which relaxed rules on how police can use firearms. 

Events have been confirmed in cities including Paris, Strasbourg and Dijon, although local authorities do have the power to cancel marches if they are worried they could re-start the riots.

Marche pour Adama

This is a regular event held in memory of Adama Traoré, who died at the hands of police in 2016. Since then, the march has happened every year around July 16th, the date of his death.

However, this year the local préfecture of Val d'Oise has banned the event, citing ongoing tensions from the riots.

"The plan to organise this march comes at a time of particularly violent tension", the préfecture wrote to march organisers, including Adama's sister Assa who has become a noted campaigner against police violence since his death.

The decision has attracted anger from many left-wing politicians. 

March bans?

The government has left the final decision up to local authorities on whether to allow events to go ahead, meaning that decisions on marches are likely to vary across the country.

Government spokesman Olivier Véran said that organisers of the 'citizen marches' were "adding fuel to the fire", saying it was regrettable that "At a time when almost the entire political class is mobilising to heal our wounds and think about the future, part of the political class is calling for demonstrations, for people to take to the streets."

However, he stopped short of announcing a ban on these type of events, saying the final decision would remain with local authorities who are better placed to address the situation in their area.

If there is a security concern, local authorities can also ban other pre-planned events, even if they do not relate to the recent riots.

Policing

Although not quite at the level of the 45,000 officers deployed nightly during the high of the riots, policing will remain heavy around France this weekend.

Tuesday and Wednesday nights saw 16 and 20 arrests respectively, almost all in the Paris area, and few clashes were reported nationwide.

Interior minister Gérald Darmanin has asked all local authorities to step up controls on the sale of fireworks, which are frequently used as missiles against police during periods of tension.