France will deploy about 70,000 police around the country on Saturday as the government seeks to prevent more civil unrest after some of the worst street violence in years erupted on the fringes of cost-of-living protests last weekend.

The interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said on ⁠Friday ⁠the security forces would include elite units usually used for counter-terrorism operations and hostage rescues, adding that there had been social media calls for violence from “ultra-left” groups.

“We are not talking about ⁠a peaceful, friendly demonstration,” Nuñez ​told reporters after a meeting of senior ministers and officials chaired by the president, Emmanuel Macron . “We ​are ​ready tomorrow ​to be ‌extremely firm ​and ​not tolerate anything.”

Macron and his government are struggling to get on top of a crisis that has caught it off guard six months before presidential elections to choose his successor.…