Paris student protest Interfac Île-de-France, Digi Mart USA News (Paris, France): Despite a prefectural order moving the student demonstration planned for Tuesday to the Boulevard des Maréchaux in Paris, about 300 protesters gathered in front of the Jussieu university campus before walking through the Latin Quarter.
The Interfac Île-de-France collective had called for a march between the Panthéon and the headquarters of the Medef employers’ federation. The Paris police prefecture issued a ban and proposed a route on the outskirts of the city, between the Porte de Charenton and the Porte de Montreuil, along the Boulevard des Maréchaux.
The collective challenged the decision in court, but the administrative tribunal rejected its request.
The protesters reassembled around 1:30 p.m. at the Jussieu campus in the 5th arrondissement.
They then moved through the Latin Quarter before being blocked by police on Rue Rataud, south of the Panthéon and near the École Normale Supérieure. According to an ICI journalist on the scene, tear gas was used, but the crowd remained peaceful and kept chanting in front of riot police positioned around them.
The Paris police prefecture urged demonstrators to follow the route set along the Boulevard des Maréchaux. The collective said that “infringements on our right to demonstrate are unbearable.” It explained that it chose to gather at Jussieu “to collectively decide the way forward” because it refused “to fall into the trap set by the police, who want to turn the Panthéon into a giant kettle.”
