Thread by @john_lichfield

Act 18 of the Gilets Jaunes today could be bigger/more violent than recent Saturday protests. GJ leaders have called in military terms – “siege”, “occupation”, “encirclement” - for a mass demo in Paris to mark 4 months of the GJ's and the end of Macron’s Great National Debate.

Two of the more prominent GJ leaders, Eric Drouet and Maxime Nicolle, predict a huge turn-out. They have called for an “end to pacifism” whilst distancing themselves (hypocritically) from violence. Similar grandiloquent pronouncements in the past have come to nothing.

Ultra-left and violent anarchist groups have also been appealing on the internet for a big effort – “not just with words” – after GJ turn-out slipped below 30,000 last Saturday. Some government sources predict a violent day. Others believe the movement has shot its bolt.

Predictions are further confused by the fact that there are three other demos in Paris today: for greater action against climate change; against police violence; and by fairground workers against a new EU directive. All three could become entangled with the yellow vests.

Biggish early presence of Gilets Jaunes at the top of the Champs Elysees. More than 1,000. Suggests this will be an eventful day.

Crowd has invaded the Etoile around the Arc de Triomphe. Police observing only.

Large section of demo has marched down Ave Hoche. Others calling them back. Confusion of tactics because there is no declared route. No leaders. One gj says: "has anyone got a scooter to go and call them back."

Most of crowd blocking the Etoile, France's biggest roundabout. Lots of agricultural, bird scaring bangers. Police passive so far.

Getting nasty. Group of youths in black attacked police line on Champs Elysees. Bottles flying. Tear gas. Most of crowd now on the Champs, watching and encouraging the trouble-makers.

Brief battle at junction of rue tilsitt and Champs

Water cannon sprays the mob

Group of men in black in centre of pic are drinking beer then throwing bottles towards police. Many glass bottles landing among other protesters.

Definitely a different, more violent cast of Gilets Jaunes today, more like the mobs which attacked Paris on 1 and 7 December. Resurgence or last hoorah of the gj's? More like the latter, I'd say. A reminder that this has never been a wholly peaceful movement.

Clouds of tear gas surround the Arc de Triomphe as police try to scatter the more aggressive gj's.

But not all gj's are violent. A gilet jaune jazz ensemble plays among the tear gas. Not many customers for Souvenirs de Paris shop in background.

Amidst the tear gas

Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, regional flags and black anarchist flag amid tear gas

Crowd scatters under tear gas bombardment.

Battle has shifted to other side of Arc. Cobbles hurled at police lie on ground.

Gendarmerie vans circle Arc de Triomphe like a wagon train. Mob attacks from various angles. Tear gas scatters them. Big dangerous game of cowboys and Indians.

Here comes the cavalry or the water cannonry.

What was I saying about cowboys and Indians?

TV footage showing smashed windows of big Hugo Boss shop on Champs. Return to December thuggery.

Bonfires also lit on Champs. Police clearing them.

Posh Champs Elysees café Fouquets also vandalized. Maybe 1,000 Gilets Jaunes gathered around bonfire on Champs. A car burned at junction with Ave George V. This is no longer a demonstration but a mini insurrection.

Many other Champs Elysees shops and restaurants smashed, it seems. Nespresso window smashed. Shaping up to be worst day in Paris since 7 December. No bleating about police violence, please. Gj's and allies were looking for trouble from 10 am.

Bfmtv footage showing shop after shop smashed on Champs. Leg of a white mannekin protrudes from broken window. New fires in street.

Interior minister Christophe Castaner telling TV there are 7 to 8,000 gj's in Paris today, including 1,500 seeking violence. About right by my observation. But the 8,000 are enjoying, rather than discouraging, the violence of the 1,500.

Newspaper kiosk now burning on Champs Elysees. Someone's livelihood destroyed. Well done Gilets Jaunes.

Two newspaper kiosks now burning. Young thugs in black exulting at the destruction of capitalist newspaper kiosks.

Bizarre and more bizarre. A peaceful, joint climate and Gilet Jaunes march, with jazz bands, bunches of flowers etc, has turned up at Etoile. A couple of hundred metres away on Champs other gj's and militant allies are smashing and burning.

Bank branch set alight now at corner of street near Champs Elysees. Fire brigade fighting flames. There are people in the flats above the bank, it seems. This is an iInsurrection by a few hundred priggish, self-pleased thugs.

Wrong to see this as deepening or spreading of movement more a temper tantrum by thugs who fear the movement is declining. But there will be more violence before night fall.

News on the bank branch set on fire on the Avenue Franklin de Roosevelt. A woman and her baby, trapped in their flat above the bank, were rescued from the flames by fire-fighters. Nine other people escaped with slight injuries. Insanity.

The phalanx of several hundred gilets jaunes/ultra left activists who laid waste to Champs Elysees and burned the bank branch have now doubled back to Etoile. They are again attacking circle of gendarmerie vans and barricades around Arc de Triomphe. Lots of paving stones thrown.

Battle has moved to top of Ave Marceau. Most gj's watching as if it was a football match or war game. Bright sunshine now.

This is far from over. Etoile littered with cobblestones. Youths in black mining Champs elysees for more

Cobbles litter police lines.

Interior minister describes people who burned bank with 11 people on upper floors as "not protesters but assassins."

Rumor among protesters on Etoile is that one of them had foot blown off by police stun grenade. Certainly several injuries. Two more grenades just exploded. But no doubt who's responsible for violence today.

Appears that the most violent gj's and allies from all over France have converged on Paris today. Last hoorah? Maybe. One group of youths attacking police lines were chanting "Toulouse". Heard others from Ardennes, Lille, Bordeaux etc

Shops still being attacked on Champs Elysees as police congregate elsewhere.

See @CharlesBaudry footage. Looks like shop is being looted. Police losing control?

All good fun to some. Beer Station café at top of Avenue McMahon with unrivaled riot views.

Meanwhile big march for climate action, including handful of Gilets Jaunes, is going ahead calmly in another part of central Paris.

Interior ministry figures for size of gj demos at 2pm are interesting. 10,000 in Paris and only 4,500 in rest of country. Overall same as last week but concentrated in capital. Official figs will grow as usual by end of day. But overall gj movement's decline is confirmed.

Seems to be calming a little at Etoile. Six hours of rioting have taken their toll. Many protesters drifting away.

But others still confronting police at same spot where trouble began on Champs Elysees this morning.

Bulgari jewelers being attacked. Tear gas scatters the would-be looters. Hand to hand fighting between police and small band of protesters.

Police chief telling Prime Minister on live TV that one policeman taken to hospital unconscious after being struck on head by cobblestone.

Fire has now started on red awning of very expensive Fouquets restaurant which was vandalized earlier. PM Édouard Philippe is strolling behind police lines 400 metres away. Awning destroyed.

Great symbolic triumph for anticapitalist militias and gj's to burn the frontage of one of the supposed eating places of Parisian elite - though Fouquets is more of a tourist trap these days.

Police with water cannon gathering to sweep remaining gj's - maybe 500 or 600 - off the Champs. Small fires everywhere.

One fire threatening to set a building alight. Water cannon acting as fire engine to try to put it out.

Fire was built from dozens of chairs from a restaurant terrace. PM Philippe is telling TV that "thousands of thugs (casseurs) invaded Paris today." He says police have orders to crack down on them.

Whole facade of Champs Elysees has been, in effect, sacked and burned. Few shops and restaurants have been spared at this stage. Police still far from taking control. . Questions will be asked about police tactics but difficult to control 1,000 people who want to destroy stuff.

TV commentator asking how this will go down outside France. "What will people think of us? The Champs Elysees pillaged and burned."

Police spokesman says they can't just push mob off the Champs Elysees because they will split into small groups and burn cars etc. This is already happening. Car fire reported at Rue Colisee, near the bank burned earlier..

Police finally rounding up and clearing away the last Gilets Jaunes and allies on the Champs. But as feared the hardest nuts are attacking cars etc on adjoining streets.

Smashed shops on Champs Elysees also covered in mocking tags. "Paris is magic". "Open house."

Bizarrely a few tourists beginning to reclaim the battered Champs Elysees.

To sum up. By far the worst violence in Paris since 1 and 8 December. At times like an insurrection, not a protest. A bank burned and residents in flats above saved from flames. Every shop front and restaurant terrace on Champs Elysees smashed.

But unlike 1 and 8 december this does not suggest to me that gj movement is a growing menace to French democracy. Numbers and my observations suggest this was a cry of fury from most extreme gj's and allies from all over France who know the grassroots movement is dying.

Can they do it again? Doubtful. Every ultra left activist in France plus the most violent remaining gj's came to Paris today. It had been flagged as their big day for weeks. Predict next week will be quietish.

Government will be attacked for losing control etc. But today's events may also help Macron (on a ski holiday) by discrediting what remains of a declining movement.

Interior ministry says there were 32,300 Gilets Jaunes on streets of France today including 10,000 in Paris. This is a slight increase on last week's 29,000, when there were 3,000 in Paris.

Confirms my impression that most militant and thuggish gj's and ultra left allies from all over Fr converged on Paris today but this was an attempt to revive a flagging movement. Boast by GJ spokespeople that they would match 240,000 nationwide mobilized on Nov 17 proved empty.

Just heard from security source that French ultraleft thugs were strengthened today by like-minded anarcho-gauchistes from several other European countries. An EU of nihilist violence.