Pressure mounting on Macron to calm rioters
MONUMENTS and shops have reopened in Paris while cleaners were out on the streets after a new wave of protests and riots injured 71 people in the French capital and caused widespread damage.
President Emmanuel Macron broke his silence to tweet appreciation for the police, but pressure mounted on him yesterday to propose new solutions to calm the anger dividing France.
The number of injured in Paris and nationwide was down on Saturday from protest riots a week ago.
But France’s exceptional police deployment failed to deter determined protesters. Some 125,000 took to the streets across France on Saturday with a bevy of demands.
France’s Interior Ministry said 1,220 people were taken into custody around France during the latest “yellow vest” protests, a round-up the scale of which the country has not seen in years.
Police patrols frisked protesters on Saturday at railway stations all around the country, confiscating everything from heavy metal petanque balls to tennis rackets – anything that could remotely be used as a weapon.
The Eiffel Tower and Louvre Museum reopened yesterday after closing amid Saturday’s rioting.
Fierce winds and rain pummelled Paris overnight, complicating the effort to clean up tear gas canisters and debris left by protesters’ fires and looting.