Police, protesters clash in France
‘Yellow vests’ protest spills over into Belgium and Netherlands
FRENCH riot police fired tear gas and water cannon in a clash with “yellow vests” protesters in Paris yesterday during the latest in a wave of demonstrations that have shaken President Emmanuel Macron’s authority.
Scattered clashes occurred around the city as the protesters sought to reach the presidential palace and demand Macron’s resignation.
About 89 000 police were on duty in France yesterday, about 8 000 of them in Paris.
The authorities said 575 people had been searched and briefly arrested and 361 people of them remained in custody after police found potential weapons.
Hundreds of protesters milled around the Arc de Triomphe monument, which was defaced with anti-macron graffiti last Saturday, when rioters also torched dozens of cars and looted shops in the worst rioting in Paris since May 1968.
A police spokesperson told reporters there were about 1 500 protesters on the Champs Elysees boulevard.
Large groups of people spilled into other areas and headed to eastern Paris. Some also temporarily blocked the ring road circling central Paris.
“We took the train for 11 hours just to protest today. We feel scorned by these technocrats that govern us,” said Gilles Noblet, a demonstrator from the southwest region of Ariege.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe appealed for restraint so the dialogue started last week could continue.
Last Tuesday, Philippe announced the government was suspending the planned increases to fuel taxes for at least six months to help defuse weeks of protests.
The protests, named after the high-visibility safety jackets French motorists have to keep in their cars, erupted last month over the squeeze on household budgets caused by fuel taxes. The demonstrations have since swelled into a broad, sometimes violent rebellion against Macron
The yellow vest protest movement is crossing borders, with demonstrations held in neighbouring Belgium and in Netherlands yesterday. Neither country has proposed a hike in fuel tax – the catalyst for the massive and destructive demonstrations in France in recent weeks.
Hundreds of protesters calling for the resignation of Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel marched on the European quarter of Brussels.
Walking behind a banner reading “social winter is coming”, the protesters chanted “Macron, Michel resign”.
Police used pepper spray and scuffled with protesters who tried to break through their barricade blocking access to the European Parliament and the EU’S other main institutions.
In Rotterdam, a few hundred protesters walked peacefully singing and handing flowers to passers-by.
Sisters Beb and Ieneke Lambermont, 76 and 67 respectively, were among them.
“Our children are hard-working people but they have to pay taxes everywhere. You can’t get housing anymore. It is not going well in Dutch society,” Ieneke said.
“The social welfare net we grew up with is gone. The government is not there for the people. It is there to protect its own interests,” she said. |
Social winter is coming... Macron, Michel resign