Moment French riot police violently conflict with college students in central Paris – as Muslim far-Left mayor on the forefront of protests poses for selfies with followers

French riot police have violently clashed with student protesters in central Paris, with footage showing an officer being kicked as glass shatters and objects are hurled through the air.

Police are seen blowing whistles and advancing towards demonstrators before forming a line with their shields held out as hundreds surge towards them.

Amid the unrest, far-Left mayor Bally Bagayoko has been pictured posing for selfies with supporters, while other footage shows him being carried on the shoulders of young demonstrators.

The Muslim mayor of Saint-Denis has emerged as a prominent supporter of the student protest movement, whose participants have been blocking access to high schools for more than two weeks. 

Footage of the clashes shows police wielding batons as protesters press against their shields. 

One man launches himself towards an officer in an apparent flying kick, while objects rain down around them. 

Water cannons then spray the crowd as the confrontation continues.

France has suffered days of disorder and violence sparked by failing school conditions, with high school students joined by far-Left activists and Antifa-linked extremists in clashes with riot police across the country.

Riot cops have been involved in ongoing battles with balaclava-clad demonstrators who have set fire to schools and attacked teachers.

Bagayoko was filmed at a demonstration in Paris on Tuesday standing between officers and student protesters, spreading his arms and shouting ‘Stop’.

Further footage showed him having saline solution applied to his eyes after he was exposed to tear gas.

His support for the demonstrations has drawn scrutiny from the authorities.

The Paris Police Prefect even reported him to the public prosecutor’s office for ‘incitement to commit a crime’, after he was filmed saying that ‘violence, at a given moment, can be legitimate,’ in front of the Paul-Éluard high school in support of the blockade movement, Le Parisien reported. 

But despite his detractors, the Muslim mayor has emerged as a hero of the youth protest movement, at a time when Emmanuel Macron’s government – burdened with a spiralling debt crisis – has never been weaker. 

Before he was elected with a large majority, Bagayoko served as a local councillor for 19 years and coached basketball.

On Saturdays and Tuesdays, he still teaches children the sport, according to an interview in El País, even as he leads LFI’s biggest town with a population of 150,000.

In his office at Saint-Denis town hall, a well-known official portrait of Macron leans against the wall on the floor, in what Bagayoko calls a protest against the state’s failure to address social inequalities.

His refusal to hang the picture earned him a letter of ire from the prefect of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, who reprimanded him for violating the ‘republican custom’ of displaying the presidential portrait.

He drapes a Palestinian flag behind his chair, according to Le Monde, in a show of support for the cause that is a powerful driving force of LFI founder Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s election campaigns.

The LFI and Mélenchon have faced accusations of failing to properly condemn the October 7, 2023, attacks by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on Israel.

Mélenchon has also been accused of antisemitism after a long list of comments, such as when he mocked the pronunciation ‘Epstein’ during a political rally in February in a quip many read as an attempt to emphasise the sexual predator’s Jewishness.

Mélenchon rejected accusations of antisemitism at the time, calling his comments ‘ironic’.

Bagayoko made himself a controversial figure when he announced soon after his election that he would begin a gradual ‘process of disarming’ the police.

‘We will review the entirety of the weapons of the local police. This will be done in consultation with police leadership, staff and city residents, so that we can have a local police that is able to act,’ he told France Télévisions at the time.

The comments drew the anger of the hard-Right, particularly after reports of police officers putting in transfer requests.

In a social media post, Eric Ciotti, the Mayor of Nice, offered to take in any officers who felt ‘threatened’ by Bagayoko’s decision.

The president of the hard-Right National Rally, Jordan Bardella, said that towns run by his party would be ‘sanctuaries for any local police officer who wishes to work on security and be supported and respected’.

Bagayoko denied reports of a ‘wave’ of transfer requests, calling them exaggerated.

Since the student protest movement gripped France, he has been vocal about his opposition to the police using force, telling Reuters on Wednesday: ‘They had decided to charge and effectively go after the students, many of whom ​had shown no aggressive behaviour whatsoever toward the police officers.’

There have been more than 6,000 arrests and dozens of student injuries since the protests began.

​Rights groups and unions accuse the police of using heavy-handed tactics against minors, including the use of batons, tear gas ‌and ⁠non-lethal flashball guns.

Authorities say hundreds of police officers have also been injured, schools have been burned or ransacked, and teachers and members of the public have been attacked.

But while young protesters may have grown increasingly assertive against the State, fear of their parents clearly remains.

Humiliating videos have emerged showing furious mothers and fathers reprimanding their rioting children and hauling them away from the unrest.

In one clip, a seething mother can be seen getting out of her car and sprinting towards her son as smoke billows in the background.

A father of four himself, Bagayoko said that ‘the high school children who were in the street could be my children… it is my responsibility to be at their side’.