French shops, museums and events will close again this weekend as students and Yellow Vests plan new marches and Macron holds the line on protest bans

PARIS, Oct 23 (Reuters). Businesses, cultural events and museums planned to close at the weekend despite curbs on demonstrations, as President Emmanuel Macron seeks to restore order a week after nationwide protests turned violent.

Picture is an illustration of a shuttered Paris street.

The main student union, UNEF, has called rallies on Saturday, and the Yellow Vest movement, which emerged in 2018, filed plans this week for a march through central Paris. Macron was due to meet student representatives later on Friday, but UNEF said its rallies would go ahead. The rallies grew out of high school protests last month against teacher shortages and poor school facilities.

Macron is trampling upon the freedom to protest in our country, and is spitting on the values of the republic he claims to defend, the union said in an emailed statement.

France is still reeling from the worst violence in years last weekend, when looting and riots ran on the fringes of nationwide protests. Overnight curfews in parts of Paris and other cities have since passed without major incident. Macron blamed seditious ultra left groups for the unrest, a charge the far left France Unbowed party denied, and said on Thursday that illegitimate protests would be banned in coming days. Demonstrations organized by groups such as trade unions would be allowed to proceed but could be diverted along alternative routes.

Marylise Leon, general secretary of the CFDT, one of the largest trade unions in the country, said the curb would do little to restore calm and that the government would do better to make concrete proposals answering the anger behind the protests. Saturday will test both claims, hers and the president, in the streets of Paris, Lyon and Marseille, where full bans are already in force.