French women reclaim ‘yellow vest’ protests with peaceful demo

PARIS: Hundreds of women marched in Paris to reclaim France’s ‘yellow vest’ movement from violent activists, a day after protesters smashed their way into a government ministry.

The women, wearing yellow vests, turned out after 50,000 people returned to the streets of France amid violent clashes with police.

Some of the women waved yellow balloons and pushed prams. Protests were also held in other French cities.

“All the media ever reports is the violence, and we are forgetting the root of the problem” which is the fight against austerity, said one protester, Karen, a 42-year- old nurse from Marseille.

The women sang the ‘Marseillaise’, France’s national anthem, as they gathered on the steps of the city’s opera house at Bastille before marching through nearby streets.

The women’s demonstrations came as Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire called for an end to the ‘yellow vest’ unrest, saying ‘those who believe in democracy’ should now say ‘ that’s enough’, he told Europe 1 radio.

There were also women’s demonstrations in Caen, northwestern France, and Montceau-les- Mines, centraleastern France. In the southwestern city of Toulouse, 300 women took to the streets shouting: “Macron your goose is cooked, the chicks are in the street.”

The ‘ yellow vest’ protest movement, which has now seen protests on eight consecutive Saturdays, was initially triggered by anger over an increase in fuel taxes.

But it has since morphed into a campaign against the high cost of living and the government of President Emmanuel Macron, seen by many as arrogant and beholden to big business.

Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux, who is also a minister, had to flee his offices by a backdoor when a handful of protesters smashed down the large wooden door into his ministry compound with the help of a forklift truck.

He later denounced the breakin, in which some cars were damaged and windows smashed, as an ‘unacceptable attack on the Republic’.

Griveaux had earlier criticised the yellow vest movement, describing those involved as ‘agitators’ who sought ‘ to overthrow the government’. — AFP