France: 70,000 Security Forces to Deploy Again on Halloween Night Amid Very High Disorder Risk
France's Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on October 29 that the government will deploy 70,000 security forces across the country again on Saturday, October 31, Halloween night, because the risk of public disorder is "very high".
Nunez said radical groups have called for violent gatherings from 8 p.m. in many cities. Demonstrations will be allowed but not in city centres, and so-called Halloween "revolution" gatherings will be banned. Several cities have already imposed preventive restrictions.
France has seen successive waves of mass protest: on Saturday, October 24, some 410,000 people marched nationwide while 70,000 police were deployed, averting a repeat of the looting seen on October 17. The protests began over planned pension reforms and have broadened to wages, living costs and public services.
Unions have called a nationwide strike for November 5. Nunez said the government is monitoring the situation closely and preparing for possible confrontations on Saturday.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 照片：法国巴黎的警察，Ladislav Luppa 摄，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 4.0 授权 / Photo of French police in Paris by Ladislav Luppa, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
