France braces for more riots
Museums, Eiffel Tower to close
PARIS — Authorities across France braced Thursday for the possibility of more riots and violence at anti-government protests this weekend, holding emergency meetings and deploying tens of thousands of police and security forces.
Museums, theatres and shops in Paris announced they’d close Saturday as a precaution — including the city’s famed Eiffel Tower.
Police unions and city authorities met to strategize on how to handle the weekend protests, which are coming even though President Emmanuel Macron surrendered Wednesday night and cancelled a fuel tax hike that had unleashed weeks of unrest.
On the other side of France’s volatile social debate, disparate groups of protesters did the same thing, sharing their weekend plans on social networks and chat groups.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told senators Thursday that the government will deploy “exceptional” security measures for the protests in Paris and elsewhere, with additional new forces on top of the 65,000 security officers already in place.
Some “yellow vest” protesters, French union officials and prominent politicians across the political spectrum called for calm Thursday after the worst rioting in Paris in decades last weekend.
Macron agreed to abandon the fuel tax hike, part of his plans to combat global warming, but protesters’ demands have now expanded to other issues hurting French workers, retirees and students. And in a move questioned by both critics and supporters, the president himself has disappeared from public view.
The PM reiterated the government’s plan to scrap a fuel tax rise planned by the previous government because of the “extreme tensions” France is facing.