France faces its Saturday test as the Yellow Vests file a Paris march, and French borrowing costs reach their highest since 2002

Saturday is the day the French government has been working toward all week. A representative of the Gilets Jaunes, the Yellow Vest movement that rose against living costs in 2018 and is not tied to the unions, presented plans for a march across the heart of Paris, including areas looted just days ago. Student groups have called protests for the same day to press demands for more spending on education. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu was due to meet union leaders on Wednesday to look for ways to defuse the crisis, and President Emmanuel Macron will meet his intelligence services on Thursday ahead of the demonstrations.

The government has admitted its first response failed and is preparing a far larger one. Ministers have promised a vastly reinforced security operation for Saturday, with troops deployed alongside police after rioting and looting swept Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Limoges on October 17 and overwhelmed the police for hours. One death has been confirmed in the unrest so far. The strain is reaching the weekend's sport as well. The Paris police prefecture has asked the French football league to postpone Sunday's Paris St Germain match against Lyon, French media reported, and Toulouse's home match against Troyes has already been moved from Saturday to Sunday at the request of local authorities. An NFL regular season game between Pittsburgh and New Orleans is also scheduled at the Stade de France on Sunday, an event that will need a heavy police deployment of its own.

Markets are delivering their own verdict. French government borrowing costs have climbed sharply this week, and the benchmark 10 year bond yield reached 5 percent, its highest level since July 2002, as of October 21. Analysts told Reuters that investors fear the unrest will complicate the government's effort to repair strained public finances at a time of mounting budget pressure. France calmed under curfews this week. Whether the calm holds through Saturday is the question the troops, the unions and the bond market are all waiting on.