France’s prime minister told fellow lawmakers in the National Assembly that the deployment will be massive.
By Catholics for Catholics
After weeks of some of the worst rioting in France in decades, French authorities said they will deploy professional troops to aid police during upcoming violent riots planned for the weekend.
The move is seen as a way the French government is admitting its failure in the recent mayhem that has seen many of the country’s cities burning, with thousands of street protestors looting, burning and ransacking everything in sight. The street fights have left almost a thousand police officers injured, historical buildings and monuments set ablaze and 3,000 businesses were damaged or looted.
According to the Epoch Times, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu told fellow lawmakers in the National Assembly on Oct. 20 that the immediate priority was restoring order after rioting and looting in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, and other cities.
The plan for the weekend, according to what Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told Parliament is that soldiers would take charge of some static duties to free up police to respond to unrest, while the government pledged to change tactics after being criticized for letting looters run amok on city centers.
Lecornu blamed far-left groups for violence during the protests.
🚨 BREAKING: A Paris administrative court has OVERTURNED the ban on mass "demonstrations" in the streets, just in time for the weekend Macron should grow some balls and SEND IN THE MILITARY. The city is doing EVERYTHING they can to make sure Paris continues to burn. https://t.co/zeujKFUxzk
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 22, 2026
“A certain number of violent individuals from the radical far left and the ultra-left have chosen to operate in a swarm, to sow violence in a methodical way, with the help of digital tools,” he said.
The prime minister described the disaster as a choice “between violence and the Republic,” with France left wobbling because of both the scale of the riots and the apparent helplessness of the police to stop them.
The turmoil started building in late September, when students blockaded high schools in Seine-Saint-Denis, an area just north of Paris with a large immigrant population. The protests quickly turned into riots that then spread nationwide.
Presidential elections are due next year, with the political establishment under threat from increased support for right-wing National Rally leader Marine Le Pen and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Recent polls show Le Pen with a clear lead in voter intentions, according to an Ifop-Fiducial survey published by French broadcaster TF1.
