France on edge: What will happen on October 31?

“The protests will end when the demands are met. Student organizations are calling for protests on Saturday, and we will be there,” Mathilde Panot, president of the La France Insoumise (LFI) parliamentary group in France’s National Assembly, said today, according to BFM TV.

Following weeks of mobilization, French Education Minister Édouard Geffray called yesterday for students to return to their classrooms.

“It is not up to the minister to decide that,” Panot told TF1.

Following weeks of protests, the government has responded to the demands of high school and university students, but its proposals have failed to fully convince young people, who continue to call for mobilization on Saturday, October 31.

Meanwhile, the Yellow Vests movement’s Coordination Service and the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) have submitted the planned protest route for October 31 in Paris to the Paris police, BFM reported today.

The CGT has not disclosed its planned route, but the Yellow Vests have requested that the march begin at Place de la Bastille at 2 p.m., before proceeding to Place de la Concorde, near the National Assembly, via the Palais Garnier opera house and the Grands Boulevards.