<?php
/* ------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* PAGINATION */
/* ------------------------------------------------------------------*/
// http://stackoverflow.com/questions/38939212/wordpress-paginate-links-how-to-use-it/
// http://callmenick.com/post/custom-wordpress-loop-with-pagination
// http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5699911/get-text-between-html-tags
// http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/126080/changing-pagination-list-class
$total_pages = $the_query->max_num_pages;

if ($total_pages > 1){

    $current_page = max(1, get_query_var('paged'));

    $pages = paginate_links(array(
        'base' => get_pagenum_link(1) . '%_%',
        'format' => 'page/%#%',
        'current' => $current_page,
        'total' => $total_pages,
        'prev_text'    => __('«'),
        'next_text'    => __('»'),
        'type'  => 'array',
    ));
    if (is_array($pages)) {
        echo '<nav><ul class="pagination">';
    foreach ($pages as $page) {

        $dom = DOMDocument::loadHTML($page);
        //discard white space
        $dom->preserveWhiteSpace = false;
        $found = $dom->getElementsByTagName('a'); // here u use your desired tag
        if ($found->length === 0) {
            $found = $dom->getElementsByTagName('span');
        }

        if ($current_page == $found->item(0)->nodeValue) {
            echo "<li class='active'>$page</li>";
        } else {
            echo "<li>$page</li>";
        }
    }
        echo '</ul></nav>';
    }
}
?>