Protests in France: "Two fires broke out in Place de la R￩publique"

We begin here in France, where protests are still underway across the country. It brings together students, trade unionists and remnants of the Yellow Vest movement to demonstrate against the high cost of living, as well as working and studying conditions. It follows weeks of protests by high school pupils in Paris suburbs over poor infrastructure and teacher absences. After an unsuccessful meeting with France's education minister on Thursday, Protesters say they will not let up the pressure on the government. Several politicians have weighed in on the clashes we've been seeing today. The leader of the French Greens, Marine Tondelier, said the riots were disproportionate and put in danger the peaceful protesters taking part. Meanwhile, far-right presidential candidate Marine Tondelier accused rioters of sullying the protests, saying they were, quote, hijacked by the far left. Well, there are similar scenes in the city of Lille, just north of Paris, where protesters smashed their way into the town hall. Meanwhile, in Lyon as well, the youth set fire to a tourism office there. They also threw projectiles and firework mortars at the police, who responded with dispersal grenades and a water cannon. Well, further south in Marseille, protesters briefly broke into the town hall and set bins and electric scooters alight, prompting intervention by riot police there. Our reporter, Antonia Kerrigan, is covering that for us in Paris. Well, today it's being described as a convergence of causes across France. And indeed, the people are out in force. You've got the convergence of the school's cause, the high school students and their parents and families out in their support, public services, and also remnants of the Gilets Jaunes. Of course, this in the final six months of Emmanuel Macron's presidency, see, the Gilets Jaunes have somewhat bookended his time in power. Now, we saw the march leave République with a good almost an hour's delay. This after extremely heavy-handed policing with extensive use of tear gas being fired at crowds, nominally to disperse them, although dispersing them in a confined space where the entrances and exits were being blocked for protesters who wished to leave. Two fires broke out in Place de la République. We assume that they were started by protesters. Since then, the march has moved off in the presence of political representatives and, of course, a huge number of activists. And it seems to be coming off much more smoothly. The main road that it's traveling along is completely full. There's absolutely no room to move. We're on a side street here. And as you can see, a huge number of people here, Huge numbers of people have turned out today to go from Place de la République to Place de Clichy in the northwest of Paris. We'll, of course, be bringing you more updates from there later on. For more on all of that now, we're joined in the studio by France 24's Jamie Smith-Mayer. Jamie, so are today's rallies different to what we've been seeing with the student protest movement these last four weeks? Yeah, well, we've seen most of these scenes there of some sense of chaos across a lot of France's cities that I'm sure will continue, and we'll be looking into the hours ahead. And I should just say that we've actually just learned that CRS 8 is going to be deployed in Paris. And that's a specific brigade, a specific subcategory of the riot police in the Strasbourg-Saint-Denis area, suggesting that there are continued clashes within the city of Paris. Beyond that, and this movement is showing, is that across France there are a number of peaceful protests occurring as well and demonstrations, some 500 action points across the country. What is different this weekend is there's the convergence of a number of different movements. So we have the student-led movement itself and in solidarity with them, workers' unions, public sector workers as well, the agricultural sector and the Gilets Jaunes fighting essentially here as well for cost of living challenges and changes and also planned cuts to the public sector. sector. So a lot of different messages above and beyond the student message and the mobilization that we've been seeing over the past month. I think it's worth mentioning, of course, that we are in the final months of Emmanuel Macron's government. How much of a test is this for the French president? It's a relatively significant test. I mean, we've actually not heard much from Emmanuel Macron himself on this in the last few weeks. He did enter into crisis talks with his cabinet. In terms of protocol, it is a domestic issue, so it's right for the Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, to be the one heading the challenges, which he has been doing alongside the Minister of Education. I mean, Emmanuel Macron, in many ways, does have a few months left, and some observers saying it feels like a little bit of a lame duck moment for the president, as he cannot stand in the upcoming elections. He is standing down, and it's a little bit of a reminder for him of the Gilets Jaunes, in some ways, of the 2018 challenges that he faced at that point when the Gilets Jaunes were first seen on the streets and that was at the beginning of his first term. So a slightly cyclical moment there for the President Emmanuel Macron and some challenges for him and his government and certainly right now at the moment in time facing that in terms of the education challenges that we've been seeing here but this widening into other areas above and beyond the core issues facing students in the mobilisation we saw in the middle of September. All right, Jamie, thank you. We'll be speaking to you a bit later on as we keep a close eye on the nationwide protests taking place across France today.