27 arrested after clashes at Paris 'Up All Night' protest

A sleepless Thursday night spent by hundreds of youth and students at the Republic square in Paris to block a reform of labor code was marred by violence.

Police arrested 27 people, placing 24 of them in custody, after hooded youth refused to leave the square and threw projectiles at police officers.

In the early hours of Friday morning, people set two cars on fire and destroyed shopfronts, to which the police responded with tear gas, Paris prefecture said in a statement. No casualties have been reported, it added.

The clashes marked the latest flare-up on the sidelines of the largely peaceful "Up All Night" gathering that began on March 31 in protest at preposed labor code reform and have since grown to encompass a range of grievances.

"Up All Night" inspired similar protests across France and has been likened to the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement and Spain's anti-austerity Indignados street sit-ins.

The latest late-night clashes raised questions as to whether violent standoffs would become commonplace on the sidelines of "Up All Night" protest.

"Up All Night" in its online newspaper, Gazette Debout, rejected links to those behind the violent acts.

"An important clarification: these troublemakers are in no way related to Up All Night. But amalgams are too fast and discredit the movement," it wrote.

Activist Sebastien Novar noted on the group's website that violence has always been used to undermine a resistance action.

However, to former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, the escalating violence of the nocturnal protests, which had spread to other French cities, had led to the point of a state of emergency.

"We need to call a stop to what is taking root in our country and turning it to shambles," he told iTele news channel.

Place de la Republique has been occupied daily for the past month mostly by "Up All Night" demonstrators.

The "Up All Night" gathering began on March 31 when a group of activists decided not to go home after a march against labor reform. But since then, the protest has grown to attract thousands of supporters who discuss everything from unemployment to constitutional amendment to tightening security and the migrant crisis.

"We want to make our dreams of solidarity and democracy a reality. Since they prevent us to dream we will prevent them from sleeping," the movement wrote on its website.

Anthea, a 22-year-old graphic artist, said the "Up All Night" movement is "an occasion for everyone to build up one's way of thinking, to speak freely about our lives, our problems, what we want to see changed."

"I'm utopian for some, naive to others. But, I can not stop seeing 'Up all Night' as a glimmer of hope," she added.

"Up all Night" came as a way for young people to voice their discontent over government policies which they say have failed to bring them jobs, said Eddy Fougier, political scientist and researcher at Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS).

It "will some how have an impact on (the country's) politics," Fougier told Xinhua.

Source: XINHUA