‘Yellow vest’ riot damage soars
The damage caused in France’s capital by Yellow Vest protesters at the weekend was even worse than that of the previous week, an official from the Paris town hall said yesterday.
“The spectacle that Paris delivered is catastrophic,” said Emmanuel Gregoire, who works for Parisian mayor Anne Hidalgo. “The violence was less radical, but the damage more serious than a week ago.”
France’s Yellow Vest movement took to the streets en masse on Saturday for the fourth week running, even though the fuel tax rises that sparked their protests have been cancelled.
A total of 125 000 people protested across France, with around 10 000 in Paris alone, the Interior Ministry said.
French security forces arrested 1 723 people across the country during the demonstrations.
Police deployed teargas and water cannon against the protesters. In Paris, rioters set fire to cars and tried to erect barricades. Local media put the number of injured at 264, including 39 members of the security forces.
President Emmanuel Macron’s government was able to claim a partial victory, as a major police mobilisation helped avoid the running battles that marred protests in Paris last week.
But Gregoire said more parts of the city were affected by the violence than before, as the protest was more spread out. Paris could not face this type of danger once a week, and the government and Macron needed to deliver answers now to stop the crisis, he said.
Macron was expected to address the nation early this week. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the president would propose measures to “nurture” dialogue.
Workers in Paris cleared streets of broken glass and towed away burntout cars. Across the city, bank branch offices, toy shops, opticians and other retail outlets had boarded up storefronts smashed by protesters and walls and windows were covered in anti-Macron slogans. Gregory Caray, owner of two furniture shops in the heart of Paris, said he was relieved to see that his shop had not been vandalised. “It has been three weekends in a row now. Look around you, everything is broken, damaged.”
Named after the fluorescent safety vests that French motorists must carry, the “yellow vest” protests erupted on November 17, when nearly 300 000 demonstrators nationwide took to the streets to denounce high living costs and Macron’s economic reforms.
The government cancelled a planned rise in taxes on petrol and diesel in a bid to defuse the situation but the protests have morphed into a broader anti-Macron rebellion.
Macron’s last major address to the nation was on November 27, when he said he would not be bounced into changing policy by “thugs”, but following last week’s riots, the government offered a string of concessions to try and soothe public anger.