French police arrested dozens of people and fired tear gas at some protesters on Saturday as authorities stepped up security in major cities, aiming to prevent a repeat of these events. last week’s riots. The nationwide protests are focusing on the high cost of living and mass participation is expected again after more than half a million demonstrators. took to the streets last week.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 135 people had been arrested and various weapons seized. The confiscated items include metal pellets, pellets, fireworks, slingshots, steel pellets, improvised weapons, a katana and airsoft weapons, he said. Nuñez added that so far “there have been no major incidents” in the country.
Nuñez previously said up to 70,000 officers would be deployed across the country, along with helicopters, armored vehicles and water cannons.
Protests had been banned in Lyon, in the southeast of the country, but around 150 demonstrators near the city center briefly tried to block a road. Police fired tear gas to disperse the group. A 21-year-old student, who spoke to Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity, described the authorities as “very mobile.”
“They come to disperse the processions before they even form,” explained the student. A police helicopter was seen flying over the city, and security forces, armored vehicles and riot police vans were patrolling.
Romain Gautier / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images 
In Orléans, thousands of people marched against a congress organized by Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party. Le Pen launches her campaign to succeed Emmanuel Macron as president of France. Elections will be held in six months and polls show that Le Pen is best placed to win. Demonstrators in Orléans protested against Macron and Le Pen.
“Macron resigns. Le Pen in prison,” shouted the crowd, according to AFP. Police estimated their number at 11,000, while organizers said 26,000 people took part. Around fifty organizations, including unions, left-wing parties and student groups, had called for demonstrations against Le Pen’s nationalist and anti-immigration party.
French media reported that the demonstration against the congress ended peacefully early Saturday afternoon. The rally is expected to continue until Sunday.
The situation in Paris remains “calm”
Authorities described the atmosphere in Paris as “calm” as hundreds of people gathered at Porte d’Italie for the only permitted march in the city. The rally was supposed to take place at the Bastille in the city center, but police ordered it to be moved to a more remote location in southeast Paris at the last minute.
Union organizers said they reluctantly agreed to the change. But union representative Murielle Guilbert told reporters it was “scandalous” that Macron had banned protesters from demonstrating “where we want to demonstrate.”
“We are here today, obviously, because there is immense social anger in this country and because wages have still not been increased to the level they should be,” she added.
A student named Lucas told CBS Saturday morning that he thought it was “normal for people to be angry.”
“There’s like an escalation because people, we think the government isn’t listening,” Lucas said.
Across Paris, major museums are closed and many businesses have been shuttered. Art Basel, one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art fairs, opened its doors to the public on Friday, but only for the day, as the threat of unrest prompted organizers to cancel the weekend program.
Luc Auffret/Anadolu via Getty Images 
The very first NFL match in France between the New Orleans Saints and the Pittsburgh Steelers remains planned in Paris on Sunday, but some associated locations have been closed. An NFL pop-up store and the “NFL House”, where the Super Bowl trophy is on display and community sessions and events were planned, was closed Saturday. A similar venue for the New Orleans Saints has also been postponed until Sunday. Another NFL pop-up store remains open in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, the league said. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said earlier this week that preparations for the game were made in consultation with U.S. and French authorities.
A football match scheduled for Sunday in Paris, between Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique Lyonnais, has been postponed until Monday evening.
Parisian merchants barricaded their stores all week. Near Place de la République in Paris, one of last weekend’s hotspots, a bank branch and other businesses were barricaded with wooden panels to deter potential looters.
Some 3,000 stores across France were damaged or looted last weekend. Protests first erupted last month when high school students in southeast Paris demonstrated for better conditions, but quickly spread throughout the country as people took to the streets to demand a reduction in the rising cost of living.
Organizers call for Halloween protests
A group of protesters, the Yellow Vests, said they would stage a new round of demonstrations on October 31. The Yellow Vests emerged about eight years ago as a loosely organized group that staged disruptive protests against Macron.
Organizers called for rallies and a sit-in in front of Parliament and town halls across the country, condemning the Macron government’s “authoritarian drift” and calling on citizens to defend “public freedoms.”
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