Thousands of “yellow vest” protesters returned to the streets of France Saturday to protest against President
Emmanuel Macron’s policies, clashing with police in several cities in a challenge to his bid to quell the movement.
Police fired tear gas and water cannon to push back protesters at Place de
la Bastille in Paris, one of the regular protest areas, as some demonstrators
threw stones from a building site.
The local prefecture reported 223 arrests in Paris, while the interior
ministry estimated numbers for the 11th week of protests were at 69,000
across France, compared with 84,000 last Saturday.
The demonstrations erupted in mid-November over Macron’s economic reforms,
but have since grown into a wider rallies calling for the resignation of the
former investment banker who critics say is out of touch with the economic
struggles of ordinary French people.
In Paris and other cities, the yellow vest movement had called for the
protests to continue into the night.
But police quickly dispersed several hundred protesters in the capital’s
symbolic Republique square, using stun grenades as well as tear gas and water
cannon to clear the area, AFP journalists said.
Clashes erupted too in Nantes in western France and in the southern city of
Montpellier, where a police officer was injured by “a pyrotechnic device”,
said a statement from the local prefecture.
In Paris, the official count was 4,000 demonstrators against 7,000 the
previous weekend.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner on Twitter criticised “rioters
disguised as yellow vest protesters” after Saturday’s clashes.
– ‘Keep the pressure on’ –
The weekend’s protests against Macron’s tax and social policies came as
divisions appeared among the yellow vests — named after the high-visibility
vests they wear — as to where to take the movement.
In a new political development, a 31-year-old nurse named Ingrid
Levavasseur said this week she would lead a yellow vest list of candidates
for the European elections in May.
An initial survey in the wake of the announcement suggested they would
garner a respectable 13 percent of the vote.
But not every protester appeared to welcome this development.
“There is a hard core that is ready to keep fighting,” said 42-year-old
Gilbert Claro from the Paris suburbs. But the movement “is not meant to be
political”, he added.
“We have to keep the pressure on in the streets,” to get their demands
accepted, said Virginie, an activist in her 40s who said she had been
involved in the protests from the beginning.
She and many other protesters want a citizen-sponsored referendum so
ordinary people can have more of a say in government policy.
This idea has been consistently rejected by the government, although Macron
made some concessions last December in a bid to end the protests.
Recent opinion polls suggest that he has regained some of the ground lost
during the crisis, as he has presented his case in a series of town hall
events around the country.
The “great national debate” he initiated in response to the protests has
nevertheless been dismissed as a public relations operation by many yellow
vest protesters.
The debate is a “masquerade”, said Mathieu Styrna, a 36-year-old carpenter
from northern France in Paris for the protests. His impression, he said, was
that the participants had been selected.
– Night protests –
Outside Paris, several thousand protesters were marching in Bordeaux and
Toulouse in the southwest — two of the cities where support for the movement
has been consistently strong.
In Bordeaux, police broke up small groups of protesters tossing fireworks
and bottles as night fell.
In the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, members of the CGT union
joined the protests and about a thousand protesters turned out in the eastern
city of Lyon.
For the first time on Saturday, riot police used controversial defence ball
launchers (LBDs) that shoot 40-millimetre (1.6-inch) rubber and foam rounds
were equipped with cameras.
A French court on Friday refused a bid brought by France’s League for Human
Rights (LDH) and the CGT to ban the weapons, blamed for serious injuries
suffered by some demonstrators.
The police authority in Paris announced the introduction of cameras in a
move for greater transparency.
On Sunday, supporters of the government will stage their first “red scarf”
protest to represent what they say is “the silent majority” defending
“democracy and its institutions” and denouncing the violence of the yellow
vests protests.
Two-thirds of people questioned in a IFOP-Journal du Dimanche survey published Sunday said they thought the demonstrations had not succeeded in changing how Macron was governing France.
(AFP)
