Scuffles break out at anti-Macron demo as French president speaks at Sorbonne (VIDEO)
Scuffles broke out between police and students outside the Sorbonne University in Paris where French President Emmanuel Macron was delivering a speech on the future of the EU.
By various estimates in the local media, up to 300 students and activists picketed the building Tuesday to protest Macron’s business-oriented labor policies which were introduced via executive orders instead of through a parliamentary debate.
Students brought megaphones and banners to the protest, the BFMTV broadcaster reported.
The participants of the rally oppose the reported €300 million cuts to the French education budget, among the other reforms proposed by the French president that were met with great outrage and which prompted protests across the country.
The number of riot police at the event outnumbered the protesters by a large margin, AP reported.
The rally was initially peaceful, but scuffles broke out with no immediate reports of arrests or injuries.
During his speech, which was attended by students from Sorbonne as well as other French and European Universities, Macron urged a “profound transformation” of the EU, which he called “too weak, too slow, too inefficient.”
