Up to 600,000 youths join protests across France

Map of demonstrations

Round-up of Thursday 16 March's anti-CPE activities across France.

Rough translation from Le Monde:

The awaited show of force of the anti-CPE protest took place on Thursday March 16. According to the Ministry for the Interior (equivelant of the UK's Home Office), it is not less than 247,500 people - mostly students and high-school pupils - who marched in the towns of France to ask for the withdrawal of the governmental device of contract first engages (CPE). The figures provided by the organizers are higher still: 300,000 according to the trade union for student UNEF, 500,000 according to FIDL'S, and even 600,000 according to UNL'S.

The Parisian demonstration, starting at the place d'Italie, mobilized around 120 000 demonstrators according to organizers', 33 000 according to the police force.

Pictures from the BBC

Map showing the biggest of the different demonstrations across France (the full version of the picture, above).

Rough translation from Le Figaro:

On Thursday afternoon, there were 6,000 in Poitiers, 9,000 in Nancy, between 5,000 and 8,000 in Lyon, between 4,000 and 10,000 in Clermont-Ferrand and Angers, between 6,000 and 12,000 in Lille, between 5,500 and 10,000 in Montpellier, between 9,000 and 17,000 in Toulouse and between 8,000 and 15,000 in Caen. The morning mobilizations had joined together between 51,000 people, according to the police force, and 100,000, according to organizers. They were between 7,000 and 15,000 this morning in Marseilles and Rennes, between 10,000 and 20,000 in Bordeaux, 5,000 in Grenoble and Orleans and 4,000 in Strasbourg. One counted at least 1,500 people in the streets of Limoges, Nice, Ajaccio, Pau, Le Havre, Saint-Denis-de-La-Réunion, Dax, Angouleme, Boulogne, Metz, Pamiers or Perpignan.