French high school and university students were called out to protest again on Thursday, two days after a large turnout demanding more funding, as the government made a series of conciliatory gestures aimed at ending the crisis. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments.
In a video that has gone viral on social media, Bally Bagayoko, the mayor of the French town of Saint-Denis, stands facing police at a march in Paris on Tuesday, shielding young protesters and shouting "stop."
Bagayoko said he has been supporting the students in his working-class Parisian suburb and on Tuesday was asking the police not to charge.
"They had decided to charge and effectively go after the students, many of whom had shown no aggressive behaviour whatsoever toward the police officers," Bagayoko, who is part of the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI), told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday at his town hall office in Saint-Denis, on the northern outskirts of Paris.
Originally reported by France 24.