‘Great violence’ faces France
PROTESTS: EIFFEL TOWER, SCHOOLS, RESTAURANTS WILL REMAIN CLOSED TOMORROW
89 000 cops mobilised for tomorrow’s planned anti-government protests.
Paris
Around 8 000 police will be deployed in Paris tomorrow for planned anti-government protests, up from 5 000 during the violent demonstrations which rocked the capital last weekend, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said yesterday.
Across the country 89 000 police will be mobilised compared with 65 000 last weekend, and a dozen armoured vehicles will be brought into the capital as part of “exceptional” measures to contain the risk of violence, Philippe said on TF1 television.
The Eiffel Tower and around a dozen museums across the capital have said they will remain closed tomorrow after vandalism and clashes between protesters and police last week.
The announcements came as around 200 high schools across the country remained blocked or disrupted by students protesting a raft of education overhauls, on a fourth day of action called to coincide with “yellow vest” protests.
An interior ministry official said authorities were bracing for “significant violence” tomorrow, based on indications that protesters on both the far right and far left are to converge on the capital.
Philippe told senators yesterday that “exceptional measures” would be taken to avoid the daylong street battles seen last weekend.
Shops along the Champs-Elysees and popular shopping streets near the iconic avenue were told to keep their doors closed.
The move is likely to cost businesses thousands of euros in lost revenue as tourists and locals alike stay clear.
The Garnier and Bastille opera houses have cancelled performances scheduled for tomorrow.
Shops are also expected to close in other cities, with officials in Bordeaux warning that libraries and theatres will remain shut.
A Paris Saint-Germain football game against Montpellier scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed.
The “yellow vest” protests began on November 17 in opposi- tion to rising fuel taxes, but they have since ballooned into a broad challenge to Macron’s agenda and style of governing.
The government announced on Wednesday it would cancel planned increases in fuel tax but this failed to quell the anger behind a movement which has retained wide public support. – AFP