🔴Live: Macron meets with student representatives and law enforcement ahead of new protests

French President Emmanuel Macron is meeting with high school student representatives Friday for the first time since the month-long student protests over teacher shortages and run-down schools began. The president is also holding a "defence council" to prepare for Saturday's planned demonstrations. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates. French union leader criticises protest restrictions announced by Macron Marylise Léon, general secretary of the major French trade union CFDT, criticised French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to only allow demonstrations organised by unions Saturday. “It is not up to the President of the Republic to decide who is legitimate in filing a notice or proposing a protest route,” she said on the television channel TF1, arguing that this measure “is not likely to calm the anger". French protester files complaint for assault against police officer A 30-year-old French woman filed a complaint against a police officer after being assaulted during a protest in Le Mans, nortwestern France, according to local media. A video shared on social media shows the young woman being pulled by her hair and dragged across the ground by a police officer, before being kicked. “I was holding my little sign like any other protester,” she said. “I don’t think I posed a danger to myself or to anyone else.” French PM to travel to Limoges French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu will be traveling to Limoges Friday, a city particularly hard-hit by the violence on October 17, when its city hall was set on fire. The investigation into the fire gained momentum on Thursday with the arrest of a second suspect in the Creuse department, following the arrest on Tuesday of a first man in the Haute-Vienne department who is now suspected of attempted murder of police officers. Macron to meet with high school student groups French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with representatives from high school student groups at 3pm Friday ahead of a day of planned demonstrations that will take place under heavy security. Lyon and Marseille banned all demonstrations on Saturday ahead of a new round of planned nationwide protests against France's rising cost of living. French President Emmanuel Macron said after meeting with intelligence services that all demonstrations not organised by workers unions would be banned. French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu met with representatives from France's political parties. Manuel Bompard, party coordinator of the left-wing France Unbowed, accused the premier of having wasted their time by refusing to address the demands of the weeks-long student protest movement. A French administrative court suspended a Paris police order banning a demonstration organised by university students. Hundreds of students took part in the peaceful march.