French soldiers will take over guard duty so that police and gendarmes can be moved onto the streets for Saturday's expected protests, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told parliament on Tuesday.
Nuñez said troops from Operation Sentinelle, the anti-terror deployment, would replace internal security forces mainly on static guarding duties. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the same day that Saturday's mobilization of forces "will be massive," Remix News reported, ahead of a major protest planned for October 24.
⚠️🔴 À REGARDER JUSQU’À LA FIN JE NE PEUX PAS DÉCRIRE CE QUE JE VIENS DE VIVRE À MARSEILLE. #17octobre https://t.co/F8bLimtd7y
— confrontation française (@confrontfr) October 17, 2026
Sentinelle was launched in January 2015 and keeps about 10,000 soldiers across France to guard against terrorist attacks, usually at places of worship, schools, tourist sites, railway stations and airports. It also covered the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics. Nuñez described a post-holding role for the troops in this case, not a crowd-control one.
The government now admits it failed to contain last Saturday's riots.
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