Nationwide protests continue
THOUSANDS of protesters took to the streets of French cities yesterday in the fifth weekend of nationwide demonstrations against Emmanuel Macron’s government, despite calls to hold off after a gun attack earlier this week.
In Paris, police were out in force to contain possible outbursts of violence. The interior minister said around 69000 police were on duty yesterday with a reinforced presence in Toulouse, Bordeaux and Saint-etienne.
Numbers were down compared with last Saturday, a police source said.
Teargas was fired at small groups of protesters in brief clashes with riot police near the Champs-elysees.
Close by, topless activists from feminist protest group Femen faced security forces a few metres away from the Elysee Palace, the president’s residence.
Loic Bollay, 44, marching on the Champs-elysees in a yellow vest, said the protests were more subdued than in previous weeks but the movement would go on until the demonstrators’ grievances were addressed. “Since the Strasbourg attack, it is calmer, but I think next Saturday and the following Saturdays... it will come back.”
Police also monitored the situation as demonstrators blocked the highway near the French border with Spain in Biriatou, southwestern France.
On Friday, Macron called for a return to calm in France after nearly a month of protests against his government’s policies.
“France needs calm, order and a return to normal,” Macron said, after a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.
The government, as well as several unions and opposition politicians called on protesters to stay off the streets yesterday, after four people were killed in a gun attack at a Christmas market in the city of Strasbourg. |