The third Saturday of the "vie chère" (cost-of-living) movement fell on Halloween, Saturday 31 October 2026. Before the day was over, the movement had lost in France's highest administrative court, and the "Purge" scare had returned, a French Halloween worry that goes back to 2018.
Why a night-time court ruling decided the route
On the evening of Friday 30 October, a Paris judge had reopened the symbolic Bastille–Nation route. The police prefecture appealed, and the case went to the Conseil d'État. Napoleon founded this body in 1799 to take over from the old King's Council, and it still sits in the Palais-Royal. One of its jobs is to act as the final judge in disputes between citizens and the state. Wikipedia After deliberating through the night, it struck down the Bastille–Nation itinerary on 31 October.
French courts weigh the right to protest against public order by asking whether a restriction is proportionate. The Conseil d'État pointed to a "very high" risk of public disorder flagged by intelligence services on the Bastille–Nation axis, and found the police route neither unsuitable nor disproportionate. Its reasoning was that an alternative route still preserves "full freedom to protest as well as the visibility of the demands". That is the key legal point. Under French law, the state may move a march as long as it does not hide it from view. The unions answer that a march along the outer boulevards is a march hidden from view.
Fewer people, more costumes
The movement is getting smaller. The interior ministry counted 320,000 people across France, including 70,000 in Paris, against 410,000 on 24 October and 550,000 on 17 October. The unions said nearly 500,000. In Paris, the march set off from Porte de Bagnolet in sunshine. Some marchers were dressed as Spider-Man or Frankenstein, with a helicopter overhead, and one placard read "Dressed up as an angry citizen for Halloween."
The costumes had a legal side too. Laurent Nuñez warned that Halloween would not be a legitimate reason to cover one's face in public in order to cause disorder.
Why France fears Halloween
The "Purge" panic is a real piece of French history. In October 2018, a teenager posted a call on Snapchat for a "purge" aimed at the police on Halloween. The name comes from the American horror films, where all crime is legal for one night. That night masked youths stormed through Parisian suburbs and central Lyon, and over 100 people were arrested. This year the online calls mixed the film with politics, urging an "insurrection" or "revolution" starting at 8:00 p.m.
Arrests stay high as crowds shrink
The pattern from 24 October held: fewer protesters but a heavy police presence. The final count for 24 October was 1,435 arrests and 267 police and gendarmes injured, well above the evening estimate. On 31 October, police ran 40,000 checks ahead of the marches, 15,000 of them in the Paris area. That is preventive policing on a huge scale. Arrests stood at 565 nationwide by 9 p.m., and the ministry's next count was due on Sunday morning. The ministry had not published a full overnight total as of 1 November.
The worst moment came at the end of the Paris march. Nuñez called the Molotov cocktail thrown at a mobile gendarme "attempted murder"; the officer was only slightly injured. Right-wing leaders used the same words. LR leader Bruno Retailleau, a former interior minister, wrote "It is attempted murder". Calling it that turns a riot story into a criminal one, which helps the government argue that the problem is violent "ultra-left" groups, not the cost-of-living grievance itself. Nuñez summed it up by saying the marches "went well" despite the "unbelievable violence" of rioters.
The third Saturday of the "vie chère" (cost-of-living) movement fell on Halloween, Saturday 31 October 2026. Before the day was over, the movement had lost in France's highest administrative court, and the "Purge" scare had returned, a French Halloween worry that goes back to 2018.
Why a night-time court ruling decided the route
On the evening of Friday 30 October, a Paris judge had reopened the symbolic Bastille–Nation route. The police prefecture appealed, and the case went to the Conseil d'État. Napoleon founded this body in 1799 to take over from the old King's Council, and it still sits in the Palais-Royal. One of its jobs is to act as the final judge in disputes between citizens and the state. Wikipedia After deliberating through the night, it struck down the Bastille–Nation itinerary on 31 October.
French courts weigh the right to protest against public order by asking whether a restriction is proportionate. The Conseil d'État pointed to a "very high" risk of public disorder flagged by intelligence services on the Bastille–Nation axis, and found the police route neither unsuitable nor disproportionate. Its reasoning was that an alternative route still preserves "full freedom to protest as well as the visibility of the demands". That is the key legal point. Under French law, the state may move a march as long as it does not hide it from view. The unions answer that a march along the outer boulevards is a march hidden from view.
Fewer people, more costumes
The movement is getting smaller. The interior ministry counted 320,000 people across France, including 70,000 in Paris, against 410,000 on 24 October and 550,000 on 17 October. The unions said nearly 500,000. In Paris, the march set off from Porte de Bagnolet in sunshine. Some marchers were dressed as Spider-Man or Frankenstein, with a helicopter overhead, and one placard read "Dressed up as an angry citizen for Halloween."
The costumes had a legal side too. Laurent Nuñez warned that Halloween would not be a legitimate reason to cover one's face in public in order to cause disorder.
Why France fears Halloween
The "Purge" panic is a real piece of French history. In October 2018, a teenager posted a call on Snapchat for a "purge" aimed at the police on Halloween. The name comes from the American horror films, where all crime is legal for one night. That night masked youths stormed through Parisian suburbs and central Lyon, and over 100 people were arrested. This year the online calls mixed the film with politics, urging an "insurrection" or "revolution" starting at 8:00 p.m.
Arrests stay high as crowds shrink
The pattern from 24 October held: fewer protesters but a heavy police presence. The final count for 24 October was 1,435 arrests and 267 police and gendarmes injured, well above the evening estimate. On 31 October, police ran 40,000 checks ahead of the marches, 15,000 of them in the Paris area. That is preventive policing on a huge scale. Arrests stood at 565 nationwide by 9 p.m., and the ministry's next count was due on Sunday morning. The ministry had not published a full overnight total as of 1 November.
The worst moment came at the end of the Paris march. Nuñez called the Molotov cocktail thrown at a mobile gendarme "attempted murder"; the officer was only slightly injured. Right-wing leaders used the same words. LR leader Bruno Retailleau, a former interior minister, wrote "It is attempted murder". Calling it that turns a riot story into a criminal one, which helps the government argue that the problem is violent "ultra-left" groups, not the cost-of-living grievance itself. Nuñez summed it up by saying the marches "went well" despite the "unbelievable violence" of rioters.
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