On Thursday afternoon, police officers charged demonstrators who were themselves blocked by gendarmes, triggering incomprehension and tension between the two groups of law enforcement forces.
While a cordon of gendarmes was running a group of demonstrators, the latter were taken back by an unexpected police charge that provoked the anger of the military.
In the historic center of Paris and on key industrial suburbs, left-wing activists, radical student committees and members of the “yellow vest” movement who joined them have begun to build the first barricades.