French President Emmanuel Macron has called on his government to immediately reopen the dormitories in Paris, the country’s second-largest city.

Macron, a centrist who took office in April, has said he wants to keep France’s long-established cultural institutions in place.

“The state is the only institution left that can give us a guarantee that our cultural heritage remains intact,” he said in a televised address on Tuesday.

“I have called on the government to act immediately.”

The French capital’s main dormitory, known as the Arc de Triomphe, is the subject of a massive vandalism campaign this year.

In September, a group of around 30 students, mostly from the left-wing National Front (FN), vandalised the Arc, throwing eggs and other objects, according to a local police report.

The damage caused by the vandalism was so serious that the building’s roof had to be replaced, and the entire complex was ransacked, according a local media report.

In October, a similar attack was carried out by another group of students, this time in the city’s historic Stade de France stadium.

Some 30 students attacked the Arc in November, causing $150,000 worth of damage.

The two groups then clashed with riot police, which was met with heavy-handed response from the National Guard.

“It’s clear that the students’ attacks and the damage to the structure was not only planned, but organised in advance,” said Bernard-Henri Lefebvre, head of the Parisian cultural institute, the Institut de Recherche.

“We will do everything possible to restore the integrity of the Arc.”