France planned to deploy 70,000 police officers and gendarmes on October 31 as Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez warned that Halloween-related calls on social media could fuel unrest alongside nationwide protests, RFI English reported that day.
Student groups and Yellow Vest activists were preparing a third straight weekend of demonstrations over poor conditions in schools and the rising cost of living. Nuñez said demonstrations would be permitted but kept out of city centres because of public-order risks, with a firm police response to disturbances.
The restrictions shaped the planned march in Paris. Police designated a route along the capital’s eastern edge, between Porte de Charenton and Porte de Bagnolet, rather than the more central Bastille-to-Nation route sought by unions.
Nuñez said online appeals for a Halloween “Night of Darkness” encouraged serious disorder. He attributed some rally calls to labour groups, radicalised far-left groups and certain radicalised Yellow Vest websites. Those warnings concerned possible unrest, not events already established to have occurred.
The Interior Ministry put attendance at the October 24 marches at 410,000. That day’s deployment also numbered 70,000 officers, following looting and vandalism during protests on October 17.
Scrutiny of the government’s preparations was continuing. Nuñez was due before a parliamentary committee the following Tuesday, after acknowledging intelligence and forecasting shortcomings on October 20. Separately, the U.S. Embassy issued a security alert on October 30 urging Americans to avoid demonstration areas.