France plans ‘massive’ police mobilisation ahead of next protests

French prime minister Sebastien Lecornu has announced a large-scale police mobilisation for Saturday’s planned protests, saying the operation would be “massive.”

The police forces deployed during last Saturday’s protests, which were accompanied by serious riots, were “too static and not mobile enough,” Lecornu told a question session in parliament, reported German news agency dpa.

“We will raise the measures to a higher level,” Interior minister Laurent Nunez said, both in terms of the number of officers deployed and their responsiveness.

The elite anti-terror unit Sentinelle will be among the forces deployed to relieve the other police units, he said.

Many shop owners across the country have complained that the police were nowhere to be seen over the weekend when riots broke out in their cities, leaving looters to take valuable inventory with no one to stop them.

Demonstrations could also be banned, the interior minister said: “First, we are considering the possibility of banning unregistered demonstrations that could lead to disruptions of public order, or even registered demonstrations where the organiser or the stewards cannot convince us that they will not get out of control.”

The Yellow Vest protest movement, one of the organisers of last Saturday’s rallies, has called for new demonstrations next Saturday. The group has called for a “second act” to the protests, according to its website. Demonstrations are again to take place in dozens of locations.