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Riot police charge and spray tear gas on Paris protestors after Macron victory

Click to play video: 'Riot police charge, spray tear gas on French protestors after Macron victory'
Riot police charge, spray tear gas on French protestors after Macron victory
WATCH: French protesters threw fireworks, while police fired tear gas on Sunday following President Emmanuel Macron’s re-election – Apr 25, 2022

Riot police charged and sprayed tear gas on demonstrators in central Paris protesting after President Emmanuel Macron was re-elected on Sunday, footage from social media showed.

Police sought to break up a crowd of mostly young people who had gathered in the central neighborhood of Chatelet to protest, images on Twitter showed.

Macron defeated far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a runoff vote earlier on Sunday by winning a second five-year term and preventing what would otherwise have been a major political upset.

Although Macron won by a comfortable margin, the abstention rate was expected to settle at the highest since 1969, with a substantial chunk of voters unwilling to vote for either Macron or Le Pen.

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Between the first round of voting and Sunday’s runoff, students protested outside the Sorbonne in Paris and other universities, expressing their disillusionment with the choice on offer.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; editing by John Irish)

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