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France’s Permanent State of Emergency

The bad habits Emmanuel Macron will pass on to his successor.

“With this decision, the Paris Police Prefecture forbids any assembly in Bastille Square,” said the looped message delivered over a loudspeaker on Saturday to the handful of onlookers gathered near the French capital’s iconic roundabout, a usual meeting point for political demonstrations. “Police officers and gendarmes are positioned around the square to enforce this ban.” The punishment for unlawful assembly: a verbal warning, including a €135 fine pursuant to a class 4 infraction.

Like just about all of central Paris, Bastille Square was declared off-limits for the latest round of protests held on October 24, with many surrounding businesses boarded up in anticipation of a replay of the violent clashes and rioting seen one week earlier. Organizers estimate that as many as 250,000 people still made it out for this Saturday’s largely peaceful march, which received last-minute authorization to take place on a far-flung boulevard along the southeastern perimeter of the city. Nationwide, upwards of 800,000 demonstrators defied the attempts by authorities to snuff out the social unrest that has gripped France since high school students began blocking campuses in late September.

These efforts have escalated significantly in the last 10 days. Police prefects, the top Interior Ministry representatives in each administrative département, have instituted curfews in several medium-sized French towns, with similar nighttime orders covering select parts of larger cities like Paris, Lyon, and Nice. In the capital, helicopters mounted with searchlights patrolled the city from above, while by day police chiefs handed out protest and assembly bans. Further from the public eye, hundreds of individuals accused of participating in rioting on October 17 have been brought before rapid-fire trials in courthouses, with scores of prison sentences already handed down. As many as 70,000 riot police were mobilized for October 24 alone, when special military detachments were deployed to guard sensitive public........

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