After review and classification, franceinfo identifies 219 documents concerning demonstrations, or 71% of all orders issued during the period. Among the texts posted online in October, 154 concern the social movement, a record. These orders alone place October 2026 second among the months with the highest volume of prefectural decisions in more than six years.
The Paris police prefecture is multiplying orders targeting the high-school student movement and demonstrations against the cost of living. According to franceinfo's count, 219 such decisions were issued between October 1 and November 12 for the capital and the departments of the inner suburbs.
Unions, lawyers and activists are voicing concern over a retreat of the freedom to demonstrate. These measures precede mobilizations planned across France, notably on Saturday, November 14.
The movement begins with high-school students, who are demanding more resources for education. It is broadening into a wider protest against the cost of living. Prefects are responding with administrative restrictions imposed ahead of the marches.
Instead of the routes requested, prefectures are imposing itineraries on the outskirts of city centers. In Paris, the demonstrations of October 24 and 31 are being held on the Boulevards des Maréchaux, at the edge of the ring road.
The sequence accelerates in October. High-school blockades first spread across the entire country. On October 17, a demonstration gives rise to scenes of violence and clashes with law enforcement. A series of prefectural orders follows.
The volume has no recent equivalent. The police prefect issues 310 orders in six weeks, according to franceinfo. Over the past month, 218 decisions are posted online, far ahead of the 185 of July 2024 and the 154 of the following month, during the Paris Olympic Games.
Never, since April 2020, the earliest date available on the prefecture's website, had so many orders been issued. The record published by the police prefect confirms an unprecedented surge during October. During the Games, the measures were mainly traffic restrictions and protection perimeters linked to sporting events.
The current measures are broader. They include bans on routes declared by unions and authorizations for helicopters or camera-equipped drones to fly over certain areas in support of ground personnel. Other texts prohibit eye-protection masks and helmets during high-school blockades, or the wearing of personal protective equipment near schools.
In the Paris region alone, 62 demonstrations have been banned since October 1. Each route nevertheless remains the subject of a standoff between unions and prefects. The Paris region is no exception: in Lyon, the inter-union demonstration of November 5 is also banned. Curfews are declared as early as October 19 in Bordeaux, Lyon and Marseille.
The same legal observation recurs with every public-order crisis:"with every social movement or situation that is complicated for public order, new tools are created, and existing lines of reasoning are reused."The government has not declared a state of emergency. According to a law professor,"one can say whatever one likes, but October 17 did not give rise to exceptional circumstances in law.".
These orders can be challenged before the administrative court, and hearings have been following one another for a month and a half. Lawyers are running up against publications that are sometimes late: some measures are posted online less than 24 hours before the demonstrations.