Yellow vest protestors target borders ahead of Christmas

Paris: Three days from Christmas, fewer French “yellow vests” turned out for a sixth Saturday of protests, targeting border points as a fatal road accident brought the death toll to 10 since the movement began last month.

A total of 38,600 people took part in protests across the country, well down from the 66,000 by the same time the previous Saturday, the interior ministry said. There were 220 people detained nationwide, 81 of whom were taken into police custody, it added.

The number of demonstrators has been trending downwards since 282,000 people turned out for the first Saturday protest against planned fuel tax hikes on Nov 17.

The movement, characterised by the high-visibility yellow vests worn by the protesters, then morphed into a widespread demonstration against Macron’s policies and style of governing.

Health minister Agnes Buzyn told Le Journal du Dimanche Macron’s government was “in step with the demands of the yellow vests” as she called for “a more constructive dialogue”.

Prime minister Edouard Philippe told the same newspaper his relationship with Macron has only “intensified” during the crisis, rather than become strained, as has been reported. “We talk a lot. We tell each other things,” he said.

Saturday’s numbers were a sharp drop from last week, when Macron, a pro-business centrist, gave in to some of the movement’s demands.

In Paris, the scene of fierce clashes during previous demonstrations, around 2,000 protesters joined rallies scattered around the city compared with 4,000 last week, police said.

As evening fell, violence broke out on the iconic Champs-Elysees avenue, where many shops had remained open for business in the busy weekend before Christmas.

Paris police said 142 people were detained and 19 taken into police custody in the French capital, including a “yellow vest” leader, Eric Drouet.

Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux tweeted that behind the violence was “a single face, cowardly, racist, anti-Semitic, putschist”.

He denounced the decapitation of an effigy of Macron, violent attacks on police after an officer’s motorcycle was taken by protesters on the Champs-Elysee, and that outside the Sacre Coeur church some had sung a song by comedian and political activist Dieudonne, who has been convicted for anti-Semitic insults.