A jogger runs past a Societe Generale bank branch with its storefronts protected by wooden panels on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris ahead of nationwide protests on October 24, 2026. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters
All through the night in neighbourhoods in the centre and east of Paris, the sound of sawing, drilling and hammering rang out as wooden boards were hastily secured into place to cover windows and shop-fronts.
Businesses being boarded up included opticians, supermarkets and pharmacies as well as trainers and handbag stores.
Hundreds of shops were smashed and looted over two nights last weekend in Paris, and thousands more in cities across France, including Marseille and Bordeaux.
At a public meeting at Paris city hall this week, some shop-owners had cried as they spoke of their fears of businesses being smashed and looted again this weekend.
“I’m afraid there isn’t enough wooden board left to protect shops and the demand is making it so expensive to board up shops,” one optician near Châtelet in the city centre said. “We’ll close up and take all our stock of glasses out of the shop.”
Workers install wooden panels to protect the windows of the gaming club Partouche Pasino Club in Paris Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of events in Europe – we will be closely following protests across the continent today.
In France, hundreds of thousands are expected at rallies across the country, with high school students, unionists, “yellow vest” demonstrators and others turning out for a fourth weekend of protests demanding more government funding for schools and measures to help with housing and the cost of living.
Desperate to avoid the looting and property damage seen on the fringes of some protests last weekend, French authorities have ramped up restrictions on where protesters can march and which groups are “authorised” to do so. They’ve increased policing 20%, mobilising 70,000 police officers and soldiers to the streets, including both elite units and trainee officers.
Many of Paris’s metro stations and major museums and tourist sites are shut today, while across the country, shops and businesses have been urged to close their doors.
Community tensions are also high following a deadly shooting on Friday west of Paris where the gunman targeted non-white people, killing one person and injuring five others including a child. The French president called it a “racist terrorist attack”.
Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration party is also due to hold its national conference in the central city of Orléans. The far-right National Rally’s meeting is expected to draw up to 30,000 counter-demonstrators.
Protests are also being held in Italy, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Albania and Ireland today.
