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France's "yellow vest" movement is calling for a new round of protests on Saturday, 24 October.

The so-called yellow vests (gilets jaunes) were responsible for France's longest-ever modern protests in 2018 and helped to co-ordinate demonstrations across France over the weekend.

The group's website editor, Benjamin Ball, told AFP: "There is clearly a huge push for there to be an Act II."

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Peaceful protests led by students and the violence seen across France over the weekend should be treated as "two different subjects", a French politician and member of President Emmanuel Macron’s party tells the BBC.

Speaking following a weekend of mass demonstrations, which descended into violent riots in parts of France, Olga Givernet says the protests need to be viewed in a "wider" context and accepts that students often face "unacceptable" conditions in schools.

She says Macron’s government must find a solution to the demands of students, adding "it's a lot bigger than just saying that we need to address a protest and violence".

Despite this, Givernet condemns the violence seen across France over the weekend, saying scenes of buildings being burned down are “not acceptable”.

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Marseille has imposed a ban on public gatherings and demonstrations, after the city was hit by rioting over the weekend.

A decree from the prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône, where France's second-largest city is located, says the ban will be in effect on Monday from 12:00 to 20:00 local time.

A number of public buildings were targeted on the weekend, with a group briefly storming Marseille City Hall.

The prefect on Saturday said that 107 police officers were injured in the city, three of them "very seriously", following the "looting and violence that the city of Marseille has witnessed".

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Protesters from the French student movement are currently blocking access to the Louvre museum in Paris.

Pictures from outside the museum show a large group standing in front of its iconic entrance pyramid holding a banner: "French public services are falling apart."

An information flyer for visitors explains they are "proud" to be "blocking the biggest museum in the world".

"This is an attempt to achieve our aim since our government has no reaction to youth protests other than a violent police repression."

In a post on X, the Louvre museum confirmed it is currently closed due to the demonstration.

It comes as a scheduled two-week break for high school students begins in France.

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An emergency French cabinet meeting to address this weekend's violence is now under way.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is joined by his chief of staff, Philippe Gustin, and French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez.

We'll bring you the latest lines from what's discussed as soon as we hear more.

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"Entire sections" of Paris, Lyon and Marseille were left unprotected this weekend, mayors of the three cities say.

In an article written for French outlet Libération, Paris' Emmanuel Grégoire, Marseille's Benoît Payan and Lyon's Gregory Doucet say the government owes answers to the people of France and call for an independent inquiry into how the police handled the riots.

The mayors say they want to know why looting on Saturday "sometimes lasted for more than 30 minutes" without police intervention.

The article adds that a "dialogue" must be opened with protesting high school students.

A draft budget, currently going through parliament, is set to impose "new constraints" on local authorities, the mayors say, but Saturday's unrest demonstrates what an "essential" role local authorities play.

The budget must include funding for local authorities to repair facilities damaged during the unrest, the mayors say. They also requested a meeting with the prime minister.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has been speaking to France Inter this morning, explaining the reason why he handed in his resignation.

The minister says he submitted his resignation because he felt responsible for what had happened over the weekend.

As a reminder, the Élysée Palace said Macron rejected Nuñez's resignation, asking him instead to look at how to make France's streets safer and bring rioters to justice.

Nuñez says his teams had forecast 200,000 demonstrators, but on Saturday more than 550,000 people are estimated to have gathered across France.

The security measures put in place, he adds, were "disproportionate".

Big questions for police and authorities after weekend of violencepublished at 09:11 BST 19 October

09:11 BST 19 October

Hugh Schofield
Paris Correspondent

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One of the big talking points today is going to be what went wrong in the policing of all of this. Why was there so little accurate prediction of the scale of the unrest?

Why was it in Marseille, where there was only one company of CRS riot police, which is about 85 officers, 30,000 people descended on the centre of town to do the looting and the burning that we saw there?

There are a lot of questions to be answered this morning.

France is not just in a state of shock, but it's reeling.

There is a sense that something historic has happened which presages and portents very ill for next year with the elections and the looming confrontations between far-left and far-right.

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President Emmanuel Macron has embarked on a visit to Kuwait as the French government continues to deal with the aftermath of this weekend's violence.

It was not clear on Sunday whether the French president would continue with the trip, but he confirmed it would go ahead during an address yesterday evening.

"I've taken a number of initiatives on an international level in order to ensure that we have fuel and gas and will continue to do so by visiting the Gulf countries in order to secure our supply," he said during his 10-minute speech.

Macron will spend three days in the Gulf, having arrived in Kuwait this morning. He will then visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Qatar before returning to France on Wednesday.

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This weekend's violence demonstrates a "failure" by the security services to deal with threats posed by the far-left, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin says.

"We need to know what went wrong,” he tells local broadcaster France 2 TV, adding: "Clearly, it [the security service] is not tackling the far-left effectively."

The justice minister has also expressed his support for Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, after the president declined his resignation this morning.

Darmanin adds that he is happy to continue working with Nuñez, who is a "great" interior minister.

In France, Macron is widely viewed as a lame-duck presidentpublished at 08:13 BST 19 October

08:13 BST 19 October

Katya Adler
Europe editor, reporting from Paris

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Macron is widely viewed here as a lame-duck president. He is on his way out.

There's a hotly-contested race under way to become his successor, with the vote scheduled in around six months' time.

The presidential candidate from the anti-immigration nationalist right (Marine Le Pen) and also the anti-capitalist left (Jean-Luc Melenchon) are vying to make headlines.

This is adding to current tensions in France - in politics as well as on the streets. Parliament here is paralysed, deeply divided between three vying political blocks.

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"There's normally a bit of a pattern to this," Paris-based journalist Francis Collings tells BBC Breakfast.

"What goes on is a fairly party atmosphere initially. People are protesting, they're enjoying themselves, there's often music playing, and then it gets taken over."

Collings says this has become evident in the last few years, dating back to the gilet jaunes (yellow vest) movement in 2018, which demonstrated against cost-of-living hikes for more than a year.

"But the theory put forward by the government - which doesn't seem to be disagreed with - is this is something where protesters have legitimate concerns, but it's taken over by what the government describes as the far-left and criminals," he continues.

"We've almost got three elements to this," Collings says. "The peaceful protesters, those who want to cause mayhem, and those who want to loot and set things on fire."

He notes that French President Emmanuel Macron is in the final six months of his tenure, adding: "Arguably, the election campaign for next May has started on the streets of France."

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French authorities say there were 350 arrests in Paris on Sunday and in the early hours of Monday.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez says police 'lost control" of protests in some cities over the weekend, according to the AFP news agency.

Nuñez also says there had been a "lack of anticipation" ahead of the violence and that he offered his resignation to Emmanuel Macron because he "felt responsible for everything that happened".

Macron has not accepted the resignation.

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The unrest across France escalated at the weekend with authorities estimating that more than half a million people took to the streets over poor conditions in schools and the rising cost of living.

Some protests descended into rioting, with an estimated 1,500 shops and businesses looted and destroyed - so how did it reach this point?

In the middle of September students in Paris began protesting about education standards, such as dilapidated school buildings and teacher shortages.

The discontent spread to other French cities and some of it turned violent. On 5 October, a 15-year-old boy had his hand blown off during a confrontation between police and demonstrators.

Hundreds of thousands of people from broader sections of French society, including teachers, pensioners and unions, have been drawn into demonstrations, the majority of which have been peaceful.

Some parts of France have seen the resurgence of the yellow vest movement, which has previously demonstrated against economic inequality.

Image source, Reuters

An emergency meeting is also being held in Italy today after protesters and police clashed in Milan over the weekend.

More than 5,000 people gathered to protest rising costs.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is holding the meeting, said that "hooligans" had exploited the protests to "sow chaos".

Police deployed water canons and tear gas after demonstrators threw paving stones, bins and chairs at officers.

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French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu will hold a crisis cabinet meeting today to address the weekend's unrest.

The meeting is expected to begin at 10am local time (9am BST) and will focus on the economy, insurance and law enforcement in the aftermath of the violence.

Elsewhere, a group of mayors will gather outside local town halls at noon to denounce "serious attacks against democratic institutions".

The French government has been under pressure after violent scenes played out across the country over the weekend, with opposition politicians calling on Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez to resign.

Nuñez attempted to resign on Sunday, Emmanuel Macron's office says, but the president told him to stay as there was a need for continued leadership.

Hugh Schofield
Paris correspondent

Image source, EPA

There was more sporadic vandalism and looting in central Paris on Sunday evening.

Police say they arrested more than 100 people and that five shops were looted.

They said "small groups of opportunist delinquents" were roaming the area around the Chatelet neighbourhood, where there are many shops. Police used tear gas to disperse them.

The trouble – on a much smaller scale than Saturday – went on until after midnight.

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French President Emmanuel Macron has refused the resignation of his interior minister Laurent Nuñez after a weekend of violent protests across the country.

Nuñez has been under pressure after violence broke out across France this weekend, including in Paris, Lyon and Marseille - but Macron refused "given the need for continued command of law enforcement", the Élysée Palace said.

On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people turned out for protests against the rising cost of living and falling education standards. But there were outbreaks of violence, including rioting, looting, and arson.

A number of public buildings were targeted - in Marseille, a group briefly stormed Marseille City Hall, while Lyon's tourism office and Limoges City Hall were set on fire.

Elsewhere in Europe, protests turned violent in Italy and Albania - where rocks and petrol bombs were fired at riot police trying to defend the education ministry.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest updates and analysis throughout the day.