After the quiet, and even joyful, marches organized by students in Paris, demonstrations against CPE turned into clashes, sometimes extremely violent, between police and rioters. A mix of extrem-leftist militants, anarchists, students dreaming of a new "may 68" and youth coming from suburbs have used those demonstrations as a pretext to fight anti-riot police, to burn cars, to vandalize shops, to beat and rob demonstrators and passer-bys.

Several months after riots which set suburbs on fire all over France in November 2005, urban violence this time reached the heart of Paris and French big cities. These events, which disclosed a youth who found violence as its only way to “exist”, promise nothing good.