Paris – A chaotic student demonstration against the French presidential candidates is making its way across Central Paris this morning in a giant game of cat and mouse between police and protestors.
The morning started with sit-ins and blockades at numerous high schools across the city before a protest march set-off from the central Place de la République at 11:00am.
Marching under the theme of ‘Ni Le Pen, ni Macron’, ‘Neither Le Pen nor Macron’, the protest comprising largely teenagers moved towards the Place de la Bastille, where moments ago police dispersed the chaotic demonstration with volleys of tear gas as the busy traffic roundabout was invaded with protestors.
“Neither Marine (Le Pen), nor (Emmanuel) Macron”: banners at a Paris protest by high school students against France’s presidential line up pic.twitter.com/NfsHo74l1v
— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 27, 2017
To the sounds of breaking glass, explosions of tear gas grenades and the wailing of police sirens, hundreds of protestors scrambled down side streets whilst ordinary city traffic and passers-by attempted to negotiate the chaos as best possible.
Masked individuals could be seen upending glass recycling banks to obtain projectiles with which to throw at police. Anarchist and ‘no nations, no borders’ slogans could be heard from certain amongst the protestors as banks and businesses along the route were vandalized with hammers and other weapons by opportunists within the protest.
The fast-moving mass of students, regrouped minutes later to shouts of ”à la Nation!”, before stampeding down Avenue Daumesnil in the direction of the Place de la Nation, only to be blocked further down by police.
Between the two rounds of the presidential election, and following the most recent terrorist attack last week, in which police were directly targeted, there is a huge security presence in Paris.
One woman observing police maneuvers ahead of the approaching demonstrators reacted angrily to what she was witnessing, ‘’They have enough to be dealing with right now!!’’, she stated, before ducking down the steps of the Bastille métro station to avoid the ensuing violence.
The demonstrators are currently crossing the city’s 12th arrondissement, arriving at Place de la Nation, a focal point of protest in recent years, many of which degenerate into violence.
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Video Credits: RT France, Sputnik France
