by Tyler Durden

French soldiers will take over guard duty so that police and gendarmes can be moved onto the streets for Saturday's expected protests, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told parliament on Tuesday.

Nuñez said troops from Operation Sentinelle, the anti-terror deployment, would replace internal security forces mainly on static guarding duties. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the same day that Saturday's mobilization of forces "will be massive," Remix News reported, ahead of a major protest planned for October 24.

Sentinelle was launched in January 2015 and keeps about 10,000 soldiers across France to guard against terrorist attacks, usually at places of worship, schools, tourist sites, railway stations and airports. It also covered the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics. Nuñez described a post-holding role for the troops in this case, not a crowd-control one.

The government now admits it failed to contain last Saturday's riots. Lecornu acknowledged lapses in intelligence gathering, said police had been positioned too rigidly and said authorities chose not to cancel planned police leave, Reuters reported. He blamed far-left groups and framed the crisis as a choice "between violence and the Republic"; those groups say the government underestimated anger over living costs and declining public services. Nuñez told parliament: "I deeply regret what happened. I accept my share of responsibility." He offered his resignation, and Macron rejected it.