France: "We've seen extremely high tensions between protesters and law enforcement"

We could cross now to France 24's Antonia Kerrigan, who's standing by for us in the capital. So, Antonia, what's currently going on where you are? Well, Catherine, the march from here to Place de Clichy isn't set to start for another hour. However, we've seen it kicking off extremely early doors. It seems that what's happened is police attempted to block protesters from reaching Place de la République. leak. And we saw the response to try and disperse those crowds gathering on the outsides of the square was very early use of tear gas. We've seen people running with their eyes watering. We've had our own masks on as it does burn the skin. It's an extremely unpleasant sensation for everyone in the vicinity. And we've also heard the use from what sounds like stun grenades. Of course, stun grenades were taken off the table for the last few weeks during these school student protests after a young person protesting, a 16-year-old, lost a hand due to a stun grenade. However, they're back on the table and we've seen them being used already this morning to disperse the crowds. It's fair to say that a good hour, well, almost an hour now, but it's been going on for, you know, about the last 45 minutes, this level of tension, long before the protest has even begun, we're seeing extremely high tension between the protesters and law enforcement. Now, Antonia, today's being called a convergence of causes. Who are some of the different groups that are out protesting? Well, as you can see behind me, there are a smattering of yellow vests, the so-called Gilets Jaunes movement. Now, that's a movement that's been broadly dormant in France since 2018, 2019. They are out in force or in some force today, joining the broadly very left-wing students and school students who have been occupying, barricading a lot of their schools for the past few weeks, demanding more funding for education. So we are seeing, in some cases, very left-wing causes out there. And also, you know, a lot of the Gilets Jaunes movement embodies is households crumbling under the high tax burdens and a high cost of living. This, of course, with fuel prices very high. So I've seen yellow vests with slogans against taxation on the back, but I've also seen, of course, other placards demanding more funding for public services. So it's a much broader church in this protest than what we've seen in recent weeks. Certainly the one rallying cry that seems to bring them all together is the call that we've heard repeatedly chanted, which is the call for the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron. And, Antonia, you touched on this a little bit with the police presence where you are. What can we expect today in terms of law and order? Well, as you can see behind me, you've got frequent bursts of smoke erupting behind me. That's broadly tear gas a lot of the time. We also have seen a heavy police presence around this square where they're setting up. crucially we know that they tend to consider that an unauthorized protest is to be dispersed and we know there will be a huge number of unauthorized protests across france today so we can expect some fairly heavy-handed policing we know that those stun grenades that were taken off the table for the student protests have been put back on the table today we know they're already seemingly from what it sounds like being used And you can see the level of tension today We've heard the Minister of the Interior accusing the radical left of inciting and encouraging protests getting out of control. We've also heard the Justice Minister saying he wants a strong criminal justice response to any misdoing, any malfeasance by protesters today. So we understand the authorities are coming down hard on the side of law enforcement. And what we can see is that law enforcement are very much using the arms they have at their disposition, as they were told to do by the Minister for the Interior. It remains to be seen. We hope there will be no serious casualties, of course, in this repression. Antonia, thank you so much for keeping us updated. And I just want to say, be careful out there with all the tear gas and the tension. We'll be coming back to you throughout the day. That's France 24's Antonia Kerrigan at République in Paris.