Protests held in France against rising living costs, AI data centres

France continues to be rattled by waves of protests over rising living costs.

In the northern rural communes, groups of residents march to rail against the building of artificial intelligence data centres as part of a pan-European action after the Democratic Party in the US promised to clamp down on data centres.

This as political campaigns in the country are heating up to succeed President Emmanuel Macron next May.

Thousands of protestors under a canopy of banners took to Parisian streets in the fourth consecutive weekend of unrest. People chanting slogans marched shoulder-to-shoulder from Republique to Nation and Place de la Concorde to demand higher wages.

The movement started in September over educational grievances before it turned nationwide to include workers seeking better pensions and relief from high fuel prices and other living costs.

Skirmishes erupted when heavy lines of riot police charged into the crowd with batons swung and tear gas fired, dispersing protestors for arson on bicycles and trash bins.

Activists of the "Yellow Vests" movement who defied the ban also congregated at government buildings.

Several coordinators were among those detained by police outside the National Assembly and near the Place de la Concorde.

A concurrent local citizen march unfolded in Pas-de-Calais to decry severe environmental and public health aberrations posed by a proposed AI data centre complex.

The energy hungry centre is said to have a projected annual electricity consumption of 2,890 gigawatt-hours, equivalent to 33% of the total power consumed in the region.

The action group spokesperson stated, "What is existential for us is to be able to make our voices heard."

Leader of the LFI party Jean-Luc Melenchon, meanwhile, held a 20,000-strong rally in the suburbs of Paris to present the party's "Avenir en commun" programme for the upcoming election that seeks to address social tensions through a raise in minimum wage and taxing the wealthy.

The leftist presidential candidate noted they're facing a global crisis of human civilisation across the entire planet.

Melenchon, who is rising in the polls, reiterated that France has no business being in NATO, nor in American wars, and that the country must build a global front of "nonaligned" nations that support an orderly world.

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