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Numbers are down - but there's no end in sight for Emmanuel Macron

There is a symmetry to protests, especially when the police are instructed to maintain control and deny movement, and the protesters come knowing that is the plan.

In the end they always clash.

Entering the fifth week of the "gilet jaunes" ("yellow vest") demonstrations on the Champs Elysees it was inevitable there would be violence.

A freezing day and a certain element of fatigue perhaps accounted for a drop in the numbers prepared to demonstrate against the financial and social policies of the government and in particular France's president, Emmanuel Macron.

But the Parisian police deployed 8,000 officers clad in riot gear, fearing that the hardiest would likely be the most determined and most violent.

By no means are hardcore troublemakers representative of the vast majority.

Most of the yellow vest demonstrators I spoke with who walked up and down the world famous (but now closed) shopping street for hours on Saturday would be described as "ordinary" people: families, the elderly and, crucially, the employed.

They all agree that the initial protest at fuel taxes has been over taken by a clear feeling of grievance against policies they say hurt the poor and enrich the wealthy.

Macron has attempted to buy off the nationwide demonstrations with financial sweeteners to the poorest classes. It has spectacularly failed.

They are now demanding political changes that he cannot - and almost certainly doesn't want to - deliver. Hence the stalemate and the tear gas.

Two sets of demonstrators converged on a line of police in one of the side streets leading to the Champs Elysees. They were trapped and immediately responded with tear gas into the crowd. So began running battles.

The street resonated to the sound of blast bombs and tear gas canisters being fired.

The crowds swarmed in different directions, attempting to escape the choking gas, eyes streaming.

Police began charges into the crowd.

Plain clothes officers in motorcycle helmets, the snatch squads, hunted down the biggest trouble makers.

Officers with pepper spray and riot shields formed a perimeter around them as they dragged the protesters away.

The yellow vests were effectively "kettled" into the Champs Elysees by the thousands of officers on every street corner and entrance to the wide boulevard. But it did little to stop the running battles. If anything it made it worse.

Water cannon, an effective weapon in freezing conditions, were deployed to soak the remaining hardcore as the fifth day of action turned to night.

The numbers may have been smaller but nationwide tens of thousands took to the streets in different cities vowing to return.

The most vocal of this leaderless movement are vowing to keep this up until April.

It is already crippling economically but, more importantly perhaps, hugely damaging to the president politically.