Paris protest turns violent
Police use teargas, water cannons as mob swells to 8000
Rioting erupted on the Champs-Elyse´es yesterday as police fired teargas and water cannons at thousands of demonstrators protesting against fuel tax increases and President Emmanuel Macron’s economic reforms.
The bottom of the Arc de Triomphe was obscured by clouds of teargas, while “yellow vest” demonstrators set fire to a trailer and barricades on Paris’s most famous avenue. They chanted “Macron de´mission” (Macron resign) and some sang the U2 song Sunday Bloody Sunday, about the shooting of protesters in Northern Ireland in 1972.
Christophe Castaner, the interior minister, accused Marine Le Pen, the far right leader, of encouraging her supporters to clash with police.
“The ultra right is mobilised and is building barricades on the ChampsElyse´es,” he said.
Le Pen, who has backed the protests, said: “I never called for any violence whatsoever.”
Castaner blamed the violent clashes on a minority of “casseurs” (troublemakers) who hurled rocks and bottles at police while most of the protesters demonstrated peacefully.
The authorities said about 8000 people took to the streets of Paris, 5000 of whom gathered on the Champs-Elyse´es. Some 3000 police were deployed in Paris and thousands more outside the capital.
The “yellow vests” — so-called because they wear high-visibility jackets — are part of a movement that began as a fuel tax revolt but now includes wider grievances over the high cost of living.
Macron justifies the tax increases, which have caused diesel prices to rise by 23 per cent over the past 12 months, as an anti-pollution measure. Only about a third of Parisians own cars but the hikes have provoked fury in rural areas and smaller towns less well served by public transport.
Across France, the demonstrations attracted less support than similar protests the previous weekend, when roads and motorways were blocked by more than a quarter of a million “yellow vests” . The interior ministry said 81,000 protesters nationwide joined demonstrations yesterday.
The unrest represents a major challenge for the beleaguered centrist president, whose approval ratings have plummeted below 30 per cent. Opinion polls suggest more than three-quarters of French people sympathise with the protests.
Police arrested 42 people on the Champs-Elyse´es on Saturday and 20 were injured, including four police. Several shops were vandalised during the protest.