Paris rioters clash with police for a second day over protester’s death

Rémi Fraisse was demonstrating against building of dam in an unspoiled valley

A demonstrator dressed as an angel faces French riot police officers during a rally in Marseille. People gathered to pay tribute to Rémi Fraisse, a 21-year-old demonstrator found dead after a rally against the Sivens dam (Reuters)

Hard-left and anarchist demonstrators clashed with French riot police for a second day on Sunday in protest at the death of a young green activist who was struck by a police stun grenade last weekend.

In running battles during an unauthorised demonstration in eastern Paris, 66 young protesters were arrested for attacking police and possession of offensive weapons. In Nantes and Toulouse more than 30 activists were arrested and six policemen injured on Saturday. Other demonstrations on Sunday – including a sit-in beside the Eiffel Tower and a silent march at the scene of last week’s death – passed off peacefully.

Rémi Fraisse, 21, a young botanist and pacifist, was protesting against the building of a dam in an unspoiled valley in south-western France eight days ago when police stun grenade exploded behind his back. His death – the first in a political demonstration in France for many years – has caused widespread consternation and has become a cause célèbre for French hard-left and green activists.

Radical protesters and some mainstream green politicians have blamed the young man’s death on the allegedly “authoritarian” and right-leaning policies of the reformist, Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls. When protesters attacked buildings and hurled molotov cocktails and acid at riot police in Nantes on Saturday, Mr Valls attempted to turn the tables. He accused the protesters of “dirtying” the memory of the young victim who was not just a “militant ecologist” but also a “convinced pacifist”.

Work on the dam at Sivens in the Tarn departement was suspended last Tuesday, three days after the death of Mr Fraisse. The environment minister, Ségolène Royal, broke with government policy in an interview yesterday by suggesting that the dam was too large and should never have received planning permission.