France had planned a lot, especially new laws directed against the citizens and especially against those who do not want to submit to the state of emergency and the increasing repression. For example, there was a talk of making it illegal for outsiders to be in university buildings. This would have made fighting in the universities almost impossible. However, this law has now been overturned by the Constitutional Council.
The Paris police have now suffered another defeat. The Top Administrative Court now ruled that drone surveillance at demonstrations is prohibited. The head of the Paris police prefect was ordered to stop drone surveillance of gatherings "immediately." In doing so, they are upholding criticism from a French data protection group, which criticised that the proposed "global security" law, and in particular the use of camera drones, violated freedom of expression and could also track people. The images should then be sent to the incident command and kept for at least 30 days for investigation. So while the police themselves don't want to be filmed, they are using everything they have to identify and track their political opponents. Incidentally, this was not the first time the bankruptcy had occurred: back in May, the same court ruled that drones could not be used to control the curfew.
