Debate in France over bill that would make protesters pay for protest damage, with critics warning right to demonstrate is at risk

Trade unions have accused French President Emmanuel Macron of trying to restrict the fundamental right to protest, as the government fast-tracks a bill under which demonstrators could have to pay for damage caused during street protests even when they did not cause it themselves.

Macron, who leaves office next spring, has faced more than a month of protests. High-school students have blockaded schools demanding action on teacher absences, repairs to dilapidated buildings and changes to the university applications platform.

Trade unions and gilets jaunes anti-government protesters are now joining sustained street demonstrations. Alongside schools, a growing social crisis covers the cost of living and public services. Authorities have increased security and placed restrictions on demonstrating after one of the worst days of violence in years earlier this month, when largely peaceful demonstrations saw looting, fires and vandalism of state buildings.

The Senate will debate the government's proposed 'vandals pay' law this week. Under it, a protester could be liable to pay up to 10,000 euros for damage and vandalism even if they did not directly cause it, if they continued demonstrating nearby or as part of the same group as the perpetrators. The bill also provides for greater use of drones over protests.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said the bill is essential after looting and burning during recent demonstrations across France. It was originally prepared following violent clashes after Paris Saint-Germain's Champions League victory over Arsenal in May.

Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally has strengthened her law-and-order position as frontrunner for next spring's presidential election. The RN claimed the 'vandals pay' bill was originally its idea. Le Pen, who has appealed to France's highest court over her conviction for embezzlement of European Parliament funds, launched her presidential campaign on Sunday at a rally in Orleans promising to bring back order to France. Addressing a crowd of more than 8,000, she said vandals would pay even if it took their whole lives, and promised to restore the rule of law.

Eric Coquerel of Jean-Luc Melenchon's radical left party La France Insoumise said on Sunday the law would mean the end of street demonstrations in France, because people would not risk being made to pay up to 10,000 euros for vandalism they had not committed. Communist senator Fabien Gay told the parliamentary television channel Public Senat that no demonstration could take place again in the country.

In an open letter to Le Monde, left-wing trade unions and France's Human Rights League wrote that the unfair law is a serious attack on the freedom to demonstrate and should be abandoned, or it would risk a major step back for the rule of law.

At this weekend's protests there was widespread anger at Macron for banning non-union demonstrations his government deemed illegitimate and for keeping all protesters away from city centres.

Although Macron has not imposed a state of emergency, the government and local authorities have introduced limits on demonstrating, including bans on gatherings in front of schools and on demonstrating in city centres, curfews in some places, and extended police custody for the record number of people arrested.

Serge Slama, a professor of public law at Universite Grenoble Alpes, told Telerama magazine that although a state of emergency has been ruled out, a number of decrees have brought a wide restriction on public liberties that is unprecedented. He said this would benefit the far right if they won elections next year, allowing further crackdowns without changing the law.

Lecornu will meet representatives of the protesting high-school students on Monday, as the government comes under pressure to respond to their demands with funding and school repairs in order to avoid further school blockades.