The police presence in the city has been stepped up as around 5,000 party members and officials gather on Saturday and 10,000 attend Le Pen’s first campaign rally on Sunday. They’ve increased policing 20%, mobilising 70,000 police officers and soldiers to the streets, including both elite units and trainee officers.
Many of Paris’s metro stations and major museums and tourist sites are shut today, while across the country, shops and businesses were urged to close their doors.
At a public meeting at Paris city hall this week, some shop-owners had cried as they spoke of their fears of businesses being smashed and looted again this weekend.
Desperate to avoid the looting and property damage seen on the fringes of some protests last weekend, French authorities have ramped up restrictions on where protesters can march and which groups are “authorised” to do so.
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of events in Europe – we will be closely following protests across the continent today.
Protests are also being held in Italy, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Albania and Ireland today.
A 26-year-old, well-respected martial arts star from a club outside Paris was killed and five other people were injured, including a 12-year-old girl shot eight times as a gunman pointed an automatic weapon from his car. Between 20,000 and 30,000 people are expected to demonstrate against the far right in the city.