Rioting engulfs France as anger over tax grows
Macron stays silent as protests continue in cities across nation
PARIS — The rumble of armored police trucks and the hiss of tear gas filled central Paris on Saturday, as French riot police fought to contain thousands of yellow-vested protesters venting their anger against the government in a movement that has grown more violent by the week.
A ring of steel surrounded the president’s Elysee Palace — a key destination for the protesters — as police stationed trucks and reinforced metal barriers throughout the neighborhood.
Stores along the elegant Champs-Elysees Avenue and the posh Avenue Montaigne boarded up their windows as if bracing for a hurricane. Protesters ripped off the plywood protecting the windows and threw flares and other projectiles. French riot police repeatedly repelled them with tear gas and water cannons.
Police and protesters also clashed in other French cities, notably Marseille, Toulouse and Bordeaux, and in neighboring Belgium. Some protesters took aim at the French border with Italy, creating a huge traffic backup near the town of Ventimiglia.
The French government’s plan was to prevent a repeat of the Dec. 2 rioting that damaged the Arc de Triomphe, devastated central Paris. It did not succeed, even though it was better prepared.
Although Saturday’s protest in the French capital started out quietly, tear gas choked the ChampsElysees Avenue by early evening.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said 135 people had been injured and 974 taken into custody amid protests around the nation.
An estimated 125,000 people had demonstrated around France while 10,000 took their anger to the streets of Paris, double the number in the capital last week, he said. Toughening security tactics, French authorities deployed 8,000 security officers in the capital alone, among the 89,000 who fanned out around the country.
All of the city’s top tourist attractions — including the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum — shut down for the day. Christmas markets and soccer matches were canceled. Subway stations in the city center closed, and the U.S. embassy warned citizens to avoid all protest areas.
Amid the melee, President Emmanuel Macron remained invisible and silent, as he has for the four weeks of a movement that started as a protest against a gas tax hike and transformed into a rebellion against high taxes and eroding living standards.
“We are here to tell (Macron) our discontent. Me, I’m not here to break things because I have four children,” said protester Myriam Diaz. “But I still want to be here to say ‘Stop, that’s enough.’”
Macron on Wednesday agreed to abandon the fuel tax hike, which aimed to wean France off fossil fuels and uphold the Paris climate agreement. Many economists and scientists say higher fuel taxes are essential to save the planet from worsening climate change, but that stance hasn’t defused the anger among France’s working class.