Macron under fire as the yellow vests ransack Champs-Elysees
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, came under attack yesterday from for failing to prevent ‘‘yellow vest’’ protesters from wrecking Paris’s grandest avenue, the Champs-Elysees.
The centrist president cut short a skiing break in the Pyrenees and flew back to Paris to hold a security meeting but critics said he should never have left the capital as the resurgence of violence was predictable.
Demonstrators smashed nearly every shopfront on the Champs-Elysees, set fire to a bank and burned cars during the 18th consecutive Saturday of protests against Macron’s business-friendly economic reforms.
Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the main Right-wing opposition party, The Republicans, renewed his call for a state of emergency. ‘‘Another Saturday of violence which was left to degenerate in the heart of our capital,’’ Wauquiez tweeted. ‘‘It is time to act.’’
Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor of Paris, said: ‘‘We are in the midst of a major social and political crisis. We should have been capable of controlling a situation like the one we have just experienced. I’m waiting for explanations from the government.’’
Macron acknowledged that the authorities should have been able to prevent the destruction. ‘‘I want us to analyse things very clearly and take strong decisions very soon so that this does not happen again,’’ he said.
Parliament last week passed controversial legislation toughening penalties for violent demonstrators, banning them from covering their faces and allowing police to bar known troublemakers from taking part.
However, it has yet to be enforced. Some of Macron’s own MPs object to the new law on the grounds that it infringes civil rights. The president has responded by referring it to the Constitutional Council for a ruling on whether it complies with the French constitution.
Eric Ciotti, a Republican MP, accused the president of seeking to undermine his own legislation.
‘‘This is doubletalk. He is endangering our country.’’
– Telegraph Group