Will weekend protests affect rural areas of France?

Reader Question: Will people in rural areas be impacted by protests this weekend?

France is bracing for a second weekend of ‘cost of living’ protests on October 24, spearheaded by the renewed gilets jaunes movement.

Protests last weekend saw demonstrations across the country, largely centred in cities and larger towns. However, around 1,700 actions were recorded overall, including blockades or demonstrations at roundabouts.

Some of these protests in larger areas turned violent, with looting and clashes between police and protesters in urban areas, and curfews being declared at the start of the week.

While this violence marred the protests, organisers – mainly the gilets jaunes – unions, and political parties have highlighted that the demonstrations were largely peaceful elsewhere, and have vowed to continue to pressure the government with more action. 

Major protests have been called by glets jaunes organisers for October 24, October 31, and to combine with unions for a day of national action on November 5.

Unions, including the CGT, have called on members to join the weekend protests once more.

Map of upcoming protests

As with most national demonstrations in France, the majority of the action is centred in larger urban areas, where marches are being organised. 

These typically take place in department capitals (where prefectures are located), cities, and other large towns in departments. 

However, in keeping with the theme of the protests – a national cost of living crisis, high fuel prices, and calls for French President Emmanuel Macron to resign –  action is set to take place across France at several types of locations, and not just in cities.

An online map showing the expected location of protests and disruption on October 24 can be found here. 

The map shows the location of all scheduled demonstrations, as well as areas where protests or disruption could take place. 

Alongside designated areas for marches, the map highlights if disruption is expected at other locations, including ports, roundabouts, service stations, fuel refineries, schools, bridges, and several others.

Those coloured in black/yellow are confirmed to be taking place, and as of Wednesday (October 21) there are 373 confirmed protests. This number may change, however, with more added across the coming days. On Tuesday there were only 245 protests confirmed.

Areas in grey are places where action could take place, but no official announcement of a demonstration has been made.

Demonstrations in larger cities appear on the map alongside planned actions in much smaller locations. 

For example, the map lists a confirmed action in Lescure-d'Albigeois, a commune in the Tarn department in southern France with a population estimated at under 5,000.

Other communes where actions are planned include Florac Trois Rivières (population 2,100) in Lozère, Blancs-Coteaux (population 3,000) in the Marne and the Nord department town of Bourbourg (7,000).

The map also shows historic protests from October 17 onwards, which you can use to track if any disruptions have occurred in your area at any point since the first wave of protests.

Currently, demonstrations again look to be centred on larger areas, however some blockades of service stations and roundabouts have been announced. 

It is worth noting however the map is not official but participatory, and as a collective procedure anyone can declare a protest using it. This could see events declared that are not followed through.

Alternatively, some locations may see blockades or disruption even if not highlighted on the map.