1,700 held in latest yellow vest protests in France
PM VOWS TO RESTORE UNITY
French interior minister Christophe Castaner said 136,000 people took part in protests, the same number as on December 1. But it was Paris which again bore the brunt of the violence and destruction.
More than 1,700 people were arrested across France during the latest round of “yellow vest” protests, in which demonstrators clashed with riot police, the interior ministry said on Sunday.
Clashes broke out in several cities, including Marseille, Bordeaux, Lyon and Toulouse, during a fourth weekend of nationwide protests against rising living costs, fuel tax rises and President Emmanuel Macron in general.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe vowed to “restore national unity”. Discussions with peaceful protesters “must continue”, Philippe said, adding, “No tax should jeopardise our national unity. We must now rebuild that national unity through dialogue, through work, and by coming together.”
A total 1,220 of the 1,723 detained were ordered held in custody, the ministry said.
Police in Paris said they made 1,082 arrests on Saturday, up sharply from 412 in the previous round.
Protesters in the capital set fire to cars, burned barricades and smashed windows in pockets of violence, clad in their emblematic luminous safety jackets, as armoured vehicles rolled through the streets.
Meanwhile, French government urged Trump not to interfere in French politics after the US President posted tweets about the protests rocking the nation and attacked the Paris climate agreement. “We don’t take domestic US politics into account and we want that to be reciprocated,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.