An Easter weekend to refocus on the climate emergency.

Hundreds of activists from the environmental group Extinction Rebellion took over part of the Grands Boulevards in central Paris on Saturday morning to make it "a large agora".

On approximately 300 meters of the boulevards of Bonne-Nouvelle and Saint-Denis, they blocked traffic around 9:45 am, quickly installing a barricade of haystacks, and organizing sit-ins at the ends as well as at the outlet of the adjacent streets.

Many of them had attached themselves to heavy containers filled with cement, to hinder a possible evacuation, explained one of them to AFP.

In the front line facing a few CRS, about fifteen were facing, seated in a meditation position.

A large banner blocked the road, like a theater curtain: "This world is dying, let's build the next one", while the activists, waving colorful flags, repeated slogans such as "We are hot, hot, hot, hotter than the climate.

“We reject far-right ideas, of course”

The police remained discreet in the middle of the morning.

A flea market continued on a sidewalk, a guide described the Porte Saint-Denis to a small group of tourists, the metro remained open, car traffic was only slightly disturbed on this very calm Saturday morning.

“We planned to stay three days”, until Monday evening, a spokeswoman told AFP.

At 11 a.m., she estimated that 1,000 activists were there.

"The electoral process no longer meets the needs of the population" in ecological matters, she explained, considering in particular that the Citizen's Convention on the climate had turned into a "masquerade".

“We call on citizens to join us”, launched the spokesperson, promising conferences and talks, in this “great agora” on the boulevards.

This action between the two rounds of the presidential election was decided at the end of January, said the spokeswoman, who denounces that the ecological debate has been "invisibilized".

"We reject far-right ideas, of course," she said.

"The blocking and occupation of public space will intensify," she warned, emphasizing the non-violent nature of the movement.

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  • Ile-de-France