The unmistakable whiff of Gallic revolution – a mixture of Gauloises and teargas – has been filling the Parisian air again this week. Thousands of students have poured on to the streets to protest against the government’s labour market reforms; even bigger demonstrations are promised on Saturday.

As in May 1968, the Sorbonne university, on the left bank in Paris, has been the crucible of unrest. There have been the familiar images of students barricading themselves into lecture rooms and being dragged out again by the fearsome, head-cracking riot police, the CRS. Just as the so-called soixante-huitards tormented the aloof President Charles de Gaulle and helped bring about his downfall, so their revolutionary descendants have been ridiculing Dominique de Villepin, the Gaullist prime minister, and could yet wreck his chances in next year’s presidential elections.