French ‘occupy’ protests in Paris ‘a pain in the neck'

FRANCE 24

REUTERS photo

As members of the 'Up All Night' (Nuit debout) protest prepare to gather in Paris for a 12th consecutive evening on April 12, some city officials and residents have become weary with the group that has been likened to the Occupy movement.

Police dismantled the Up All Night camp at the French capital’s iconic Place de la République early Monday morning, after the movement’s protest permit expired. But members of the movement quickly submitted a request for a new permit, calling on supporters to return to the square.

“An idea cannot be expelled” @nuitdebout tweeted on April 11 afternoon.

The Up All Night movement began on March 31 after a group of demonstrators camped out at the French capital’s iconic Place de la République to protest against the country’s controversial labour reforms and “everything that goes with it”. Since then it has drawn thousands of supporters and grown to encompass a wider range of grievances from social inequality to the Panama Papers to France’s ongoing state of emergency, and has drawn comparisons to the 2011 Occupy movement in the United States or the Indignados in Spain.


Smaller gatherings have also sprung up in towns and cities across France, and also in Belgium, Germany as well as Spain.

As Up All Night now readies for what will be its 12th gathering in Paris on April 12, some officials and residents have begun to lose patience with the movement.


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