Students Take Paris Streets, Nationwide Strike to Add to Mayhem

World | March 19, 2009, Thursday // 11:22|  views

The artistic Paris quarter Montmartre became the scene of clashes with police and mass riots Wednesday night. Photo by cgi.di.uoa.gr

A riot and clashes with police turned the Paris artistic Montmartre quarter into mayhem Wednesday night.

The protests began as thousands of college students gathered near the Sorbonne university, AFP reports. The student rally turned into chaos involving some 150,000 individuals. The demonstrators have clashed with police, supermarket windows and those of two banks were broken.

The reasons for the student's protest Tuesday night remain unclear. Just a day earlier 200,000 of them blocked the Paris Institute of Political Studies in sign of protest against the inequalities in France's secondary education.

In the mean time, hundreds of thousands of French workers, mostly from the transport sector, are expected to join the country's second nationwide strike in two months. Demonstrations are planned in about 200 towns and cities. Schools will close, public transport faces disruptions and delays.

Unions are protesting against President Nicolas Sarkozy's economic policies and are urging the government to do more to protect jobs and wages. Unemployment has reached two million and is expected to rise further.

Organizers hope the protest may be bigger than one in January, when about a million people joined protests.

 

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Tags: Strike, riot, police clashes, Paris, France, protest rallies, nationwide strike, Nicolas Sarkozy, Global Financial Crisis

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