Macron convenes security council before Saturday protests

President Emmanuel Macron, back from a tour of the Gulf, called an emergency security council meeting with relevant ministers and intelligence services on Thursday, 22 October 2026, as France prepared for a fresh wave of protests planned for Saturday, 24 October.

Earlier in the week, Macron told reporters: "The government must hold its nerve."

He was expected to speak publicly after the security council meeting ended. On the same day, prime minister Sébastien Lecornu was to hold a separate meeting with party leaders to discuss policing and the presidential campaign.

Lyon bans protests and police prepare reinforcements

The prefecture for the Rhone region announced on Thursday that it had decided, by decree, to ban all protests in the city of Lyon on Saturday, 24 October, saying it feared a repeat of the riots and street violence of last weekend.

Lyon mayor Grégory Doucet described hours of chaos in the city, with between 150 and 200 shops looted and a tourist office torched. Police arrested some 200 people during the disturbances.

Last weekend, masked youths took to city centre streets in Lyon, Paris and other cities, clashing with police and looting on the sidelines of protests against high inflation.

Junior interior minister Jean-Didier Berger said the policing response this weekend would be stepped up:

• Police presence at the protests will be 20% higher than last weekend.
• Reinforcements will come from the army, elite police forces and the gendarmerie.

Despite the increased deployment, French media reported that some shopkeepers are reinforcing their own security measures, closing and boarding up shops ahead of Saturday.

Italy lorry drivers' strike pushes south toward collapse

In Italy, lorry drivers' protests brought much of the south to a standstill for a fifth day, with food and fuel shortages and business organisations warning that firms were close to collapse.

The protests began last week, with drivers blocking roads and slowing traffic, mainly in southern Italy, after strikes and sit-ins by farmers and fishers. The measures taken by the authorities so far include:

• The interior ministry said 1,339 protesters had been identified, 71 reported to judicial authorities and 242 fined over illegal road blockades.
• Police escorted hundreds of goods vehicles, including 500 in Campania alone.
• Interior minister Matteo Piantedosi warned of possible infiltration of the protests by criminal groups.

Prime minister Giorgia Meloni convened an emergency cabinet meeting after industry associations in Campania and Puglia warned that businesses were on the brink of collapse. Associations in Naples, Campania and Puglia said in a joint statement: "Production has ground to a halt due to a lack of supplies. The strike must end."

The disruption has spread well beyond the roads:

• Stocks at some supermarket chains have reportedly fallen to 50% of normal levels.
• ENAV, the air navigation services provider, said Crotone and Reggio Calabria airports had run out of jet fuel.
• Confcommercio Sicilia estimated between €40m and €50m in losses in Sicily alone from the five days of freight disruption.

Elsewhere in Europe

• French health authorities detected the Shamonda virus in a human for the first time, in a patient who later died, while seeing no risk to the general population.
• The virus is an insect-borne Orthobunyavirus primarily affecting livestock, particularly cattle, and transmitted by biting midges; it was first identified in Nigeria in the mid-1960s.
• The French government said the virus had until now been considered non-transmissible to humans.
• The French and Italian interior ministers agreed that the suspensions of Schengen in force will not be extended further, alongside strengthened information exchange.
• Thailand advised its citizens to postpone non-essential travel to parts of Europe rocked by protests, with foreign minister Sihasak Phungketkeow citing France, Italy and Spain.
• The Malaysian embassy in Paris advised Malaysians in France to exercise caution and remain vigilant.
• China warned its citizens travelling to France to take safety precautions, after town halls and shops were looted and set on fire at the weekend.
• In Serbia, the last day of campaigning begins before Sunday's closely contested parliamentary election.

Macron was expected to speak publicly after the security council meeting, with the protests planned for Saturday, 24 October.