the meeting was quoted as saying, "There were about 300 or 400 of us at a public meeting in February and we were wondering how can we really scare the government?. We had an idea: at the next big street protest, we simply wouldn't go home." Those attending the meeting agreed that they would occupy Paris's Place de la République on 31 March 2016, following organized street protests that were scheduled to take place on that day against the El Khomri law. The organizers of the occupation refused to set out a specific list of political demands in advance, although they did denounce the government's proposed reforms as regressive, and they called for the construction of a new political project that would be "ambitious, progressive, and emancipatory". The economist Frédéric Lordon was invited to speak at the Place de la République on the evening of 31 March. He delivered a speech in which he highlighted the goal of uniting disparate protest movements. Events Place de la République occupation Following the initial night of occupation at the Place de la République, protesters continued to gather over the following days, defying a ban on mass demonstrations under the ongoing state of emergency declared by the government in the wake of the November 2015 Paris attacks. Participants began gathering every night at 6 p.m. to conduct a popular assembly (assemblée générale), individuals taking turns to speak for two minutes at a time. A system of hand gestures was established, with crowd members waving their fingers above their heads to indicate agreement, and crossing their wrists to indicate disagreement. On the morning of Monday 11 April, the twelfth day of the protests, police evacuated the square, removing temporary structures that protestors had built, though protestors were given permission to return the same evening. The occupation of the square had earlier been criticized by politicians from France's two main parties. Valérie Pécresse, the Republican President of the Île-de-France region, declared that the square should either be evacuated, or that the protestors should police the square themselves. Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist Mayor of Paris, expressed her sympathy for the movement but warned the protestors against occupying the square during the daytime, saying that the square was a public space and that it should be available for the use of all members of the public. On the evening of 14 April, President François Hollande participated in a