Around 2,300 people marched through central Nice on Saturday 24th October in defiance of a prefectural ban on demonstrations, and while the shop looting of a week earlier was not repeated, the day ended with masked far-right militants attacking protesters near Vieux-Nice and 63 people under arrest.
The second Saturday of France’s mobilisation against the rising cost of living drew around 2,300 people in Nice at its peak, according to the Alpes-Maritimes prefecture, while the City of Nice put the figure at 2,500. Prosecutors have since opened an investigation into the far-right group involved, and protest organisers are already calling for further action.
A ban requested by the mayor
The ban was issued by the Alpes-Maritimes prefect, Jean-Marie Girier, at the request of Nice Mayor Éric Ciotti. The order prohibited protest gatherings and marches from 8am to midnight across a wide perimeter stretching from Boulevard Gambetta to Port Lympia, including Place Masséna, Vieux-Nice and the central seafront along the Promenade des Anglais, as reported by Monaco Life on Friday. An attempt by the MRAP Nice Grasse and France Palestine Solidarité associations to have the ban suspended was rejected by the administrative court on Friday.
The measures followed the violence of Saturday 17th October, when around 3,800 people marched from Place Masséna and shops on Avenue Jean-Médecin were looted. Ciotti had blamed the State for that day’s disorder, saying the ban would come with “a much larger police presence than last weekend when, I say this very clearly, the government failed in maintaining order and in anticipating the event.”
Around 450 national police officers and gendarmes were deployed in Nice, alongside more than 300 municipal police officers, CRS riot units, a water cannon and a RAID vehicle. Shopkeepers boarded up their windows, and a 9pm curfew for unaccompanied minors remained in force in several districts.
From Place Masséna to the Promenade
Protesters began gathering around Place Masséna at about 2.30pm, but were quickly pushed back by riot police. Shortly before 3pm, an unplanned procession broke away towards the Promenade des Anglais, itself inside the banned zone, where CRS officers warned the crowd that force would be used.
From there, the protest splintered into several groups that moved through Rue de France, Boulevard Victor-Hugo, Avenue Jean-Médecin and Vieux-Nice, with some attempting to approach the town hall. A separate march of around 500 people set off from Boulevard Victor-Hugo.
The afternoon began without damage to businesses, but tensions rose from around 4pm, when police began using tear gas regularly. The water cannon was deployed several times to disperse groups in the city centre.
Far-right militants confront protesters
The day took a different turn in the late afternoon. At around 4.30pm, a group of far-right activists was filmed by ICI Azur near the port, applauding police and singing La Marseillaise and Nissa la Bella before heading towards the city centre.
According to the prefecture, around 100 masked far-right militants converged on the centre with the aim of physically confronting the protesters. Police manoeuvred throughout the afternoon to keep the two sides apart, but fights broke out in the early evening near Vieux-Nice, around the Hôtel des Postes and Rue Alberti. Three people were lightly injured and treated by firefighters, and the prefecture reported two police officers injured during the day.
Ciotti, who leads the right-wing UDR party, had earlier said police were “targeted today with shocking violence and a clear intent to kill”, adding that anyone who harmed officers “must sleep a long time in prison”. By evening, he also condemned “in the strongest possible terms the attacks carried out today in Nice by far-right militants against participants in a peaceful demonstration.”
Arrests and an investigation
Of the 63 people arrested, 59 were placed in police custody, according to Nice public prosecutor Damien Martinelli. They comprised 49 men and 10 women, nine of them minors, most of them unknown to police. Most were held on suspicion of taking part in a group intending to commit violence or damage, as well as participating in a banned protest. Two were held for violence against police officers.
Eleven of those detained are suspected of belonging to the far-right movement. They were arrested in two vehicles before the violence took place, carrying masks, gloves, gas sprays and batons, and five were already known to police.
Unlike the previous weekend, the prefecture and the City of Nice confirmed that no shops or public property were damaged.
A national pattern
Nice was not alone. Nationally, at least 410,000 people took part in protests on Saturday, according to Franceinfo, with the Interior Ministry reporting more than 1,300 arrests and 53 members of the security forces injured. Far-right attacks on protesters were also reported in Montpellier, Rouen and Nancy, among other cities, and Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has asked prefects to refer such incidents to the courts.
What comes next
The gilets jaunes coordination has called for a new day of action on Saturday 31st October, this time in defence of the right to protest, which it says is under threat from what it calls the government’s authoritarian drift. Organisers are calling for rallies and sit-ins outside the National Assembly and town halls across France. Separately, trade unions have called a national mobilisation for Thursday 5th November.
No details of a Nice gathering for 31st October, or of any new prefectural restrictions, had been announced at the time of writing.
See also:
17 October protest in Nice: violence, looting and questions over how the city lost control
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Main photo credit: Marc Lapolla