Heavy security in Paris, as students, unions and Yellow Vests set to converge in protest

Tens of thousands of people are expected to protest across France on Saturday (October 17), as students, trade unionists and remnants of the Yellow Vest movement join forces to demonstrate against high prices and the country's fraying social model.

Police were deployed along the Champs-Elysees early on Saturday, with video showing store fronts boarded up ahead of the protests. Separate footage showed officers from the emergency deployment responding to an alert elsewhere in the city.

The initial wave of protests began in September at high schools in Paris' poor northern suburbs, where anger over teacher absences and shabby facilities quickly morphed into a nationwide movement against inequality, weak public spending and falling standards.

The protests come at a difficult time for France, as President Emmanuel Macron enters the final stretch of his presidency, leaving behind a polarized electorate and a fragmented domestic political situation. Investors ditching French debt, driving borrowing costs to their highest levels in more than two decades, have also underlined the country's long struggle to get its public finances in order.

(Source: Reuters)