Macron feels heat as fuel tax rioting erupts
Rioting broke out on the ChampsElysees yesterday as police fired tear gas and water cannon at thousands of demonstrators protesting against fuel tax increases and President Emmanuel Macron’s economic reforms.
The base of the Arc de Triomphe was obscured by clouds of tear gas while ‘‘yellow vest’’ demonstrators set fire to a trailer and barricades on Paris’s most famous avenue. They chanted ‘‘Macron demission’’ (Macron resign) and some sang the U2 protest song Sunday Bloody Sunday.
The yellow vests – so-called because they wear high-visibility jackets – are part of a movement that began as a fuel tax revolt but now encompasses broader grievances about the high cost of living.
The force and nature of the grassroots protests have led some commentators to warn that Macron is facing a ‘Marie Antoinette moment’ as his approval ratings tumble.
Christophe Castaner, the interior minister, accused Marine Le Pen, the far-Right leader, of encouraging her supporters to clash with police.
‘‘The ultra-Right is mobilised and is building barricades on the Champs-Elysees,’’ he said. Le Pen, who has backed the protests, said: ‘‘I never called for any violence whatsoever.’’
Castaner blamed the clashes on a minority of ‘‘casseurs’’ (troublemakers) who hurled rocks and bottles at police, while most of the protesters demonstrated peacefully. The authorities said about 8000 people took to the streets of Paris. Some 3000 police were deployed in the capital.
Macron justifies the tax increases, which have caused diesel prices to go up by 23 per cent in 12 months, as an antipollution measure.
Only about a third of Parisians own cars, but price rises have provoked fury in rural areas less well served by public transport.