Pressure builds on Macron to act
FRANCE RIOTS French president decides to meet national and local officials on Monday in a desperate bid to find solutions
PARIS: Calls mounted on Sunday for President Emmanuel Macron to bring an end to the “yellow vest” crisis gripping France as authorities in Paris and elsewhere counted the cost of another day of violent protests and looting.
An unnamed government official told reporters late on Sunday that Macron wants to bring together national and local officials on Monday to hear their proposals in this “grave moment the nation is traversing”.
Authorities said the anti-macron riots in Paris had been less violent than a week ago, with fewer injured - but city hall said the physical damage was far worse as the protests were spread out across the capital.
Burned-out cars dotted the streets in several neighbourhoods on Sunday morning as cleaners swept up the broken glass from smashed shop windows and bus stops.
“There was much more dispersion, so many more places were impacted,” Paris deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire told France Inter radio.
What began as demonstrations against fuel tax hikes have now ballooned into a mass movement over rising living costs and accusations that Macron, who is an ex-banker, only looks out for the rich.
Finance minister Bruno Le Maire said the unrest was creating a “catastrophe” for the French economy.
TOTAL LOCKDOWN
Parts of the city were on lockdown over the weekend, with department stores shut to avoid looting along with museums and monuments including the Eiffel Tower. “It’s a catastrophe for commerce, it’s a catastrophe for our economy,” Le Maire told reporters as he visited shops in Paris hit by looting.
Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux vowed that Macron’s centrist administration would find solutions that took into account protesters’ different grievances.
Overwhelmingly made up of people from rural and small- town France, the movement includes protesters of various political stripes whose goals range from lower taxes to Macron’s resignation.
MASS ARRESTS IN PARIS
The protests have shown little sign of easing since they began on November 17. The interior ministry said 136,000 people had taken part nationwide in Satur- day’s protests.
In Paris, more than 10,000 “yellow vests” flocked to the iconic Champs-elysees and other areas - 2,000 more than joined the action last week, as many headed in from the provinces for the first time. Nationwide, more than 1,700 people were detained - over 1,000 of them in Paris as police vowed “zero tolerance”.
‘MACRON, RESIGN’
The embattled president - whose name rang out across the Champs-elysees as protesters shouted “Macron, resign” - is expected to address the demonstrations in a much-anticipated speech in the coming days.
The crisis facing a leader who had been hailed as a youthful defender of liberal values is being closely watched abroad.