Paris Goes Quiet: Businesses and Museums Close as France Braces for Weekend Protests

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Paris is bracing for another tense weekend. Businesses, cultural events and museums across France plan to close on Saturday and Sunday as President Emmanuel Macron tries to restore order a week after nationwide protests turned into the worst violence the country has seen in years.
France's main student union, UNEF, has called rallies for Saturday, while the Yellow Vest movement has filed plans for a march through central Paris. Macron was due to meet student representatives on Friday, but the union said its rallies would go ahead anyway. "Macron is trampling upon the freedom to protest," UNEF said in a statement.
The closures are sweeping. The Marseille Chamber of Commerce urged shops to shut on Saturday, Art Basel Paris will stay closed all weekend, and the Louvre and the Fondation Louis Vuitton will not open on Saturday. All Saturday protests have been banned in Marseille and Lyon, and the justice minister said 2,700 people had been arrested since last weekend. Macron has blamed "seditious" ultra-left groups for the unrest — a claim the far-left France Unbowed party denies — and warned that "illegitimate" protests will be banned in the coming days.
Source: Reuters — read more
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