Thousands of people demonstrated in central Paris on Saturday amid a heavy police presence to protest against President Emmanuel Macron’s sweeping reforms, a year after he came to office.
Some 2,000 security forces, including riot police, were deployed as marchers gathered from midday in the central Opera square for a protest dubbed a “Party for Macron”, a tongue-in-cheek “celebration” of the 40-year-old centrist’s first anniversary in power.
The protest is the latest in a series of large street demonstrations against Mr. Macron, whose overhauls of everything from the education system to the state rail operator have been causing friction with various groups.
The demonstration was organised by firebrand LFI lawmaker Francois Ruffin and other ex-members of the Nuit Debout (Up All Night) leftist movement that staged nocturnal rallies across France in 2016.
