Army could be called to quell Paris riots
French president in urgent cabinet meeting after rioting escalates in third week of fuel tax protests
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, was considering “all options” last night, including declaring a state of emergency and deploying the army, to put an end to violent protests in Paris. Police said 133 people were hurt and 412 arrested in the capital’s “worst unrest since 1968”.
EMMANUEL MACRON, the French president, has held an emergency cabinet meeting to consider “all options”, including declaring a state of emergency and deploying soldiers, to prevent a repeat of the violent protests that left swathes of central Paris looking like a war zone.
Mr Macron, facing the worst political crisis of his presidency, returned yesterday morning from a G20 summit in Argentina and went directly to the Arc de Triomphe to assess the damage caused by so-called “yellow vest” antigovernment protesters.
The arch, which lies at the top of the prestigious Avenue des Champs-elysées, was where the violence began early on Saturday morning before spreading throughout the day as far as the Louvre and the Opera districts.
Police said 133 people were injured and 412 arrested as protesters torched dozens of cars, smashed windows, looted stores, and threw rocks at police in what Anne Hidalgo, the Paris mayor, said was the worst unrest the city has seen since student uprisings of 1968.
“The situation is very serious. We are going through a major crisis,” she told Le Parisien newspaper.
The yellow vest movement spread to Belgium on Friday, where police turned water cannons on anti-government protesters who threw stones and torched two police vehicles in central Brussels. Protests also erupted in the Netherlands.
The revolt was sparked by planned fuel tax rises, but has turned into a broad opposition front to Mr Macron, a 40-year-old pro-business centrist elected in May 2017, who is accused of being the “president of the rich” and of neglecting the struggles of ordinary French people.
On Saturday, Dutch police closed off the parliamentary complex in The Hague after about 100 yellow jacket protesters gathered outside.
But those protests were minor compared with the unrest in Paris, which has faced serious rioting for the third Saturday in a row, or the roadblocks set up around France by protesters who say they can barely survive on their incomes. After last week’s street battles, Mr Macron said the streets of Paris resembled “war scenes”.
This weekend the violence was even worse, with Paris police using a total of around 10,000 tear gas and stun grenades to try to disperse rampaging demonstrators.
Young men, many of them with their faces masked, battled riot police throughout Saturday in some of the capital’s most upmarket areas, smashing shop windows, overturning cars and torching buildings and vehicles, including at least one police car.
The big department stores in the Opera area were evacuated and then closed as trouble broke out nearby.
Anarchist and far-right groups that have infiltrated the yellow vest movement are thought to be behind much of the violence. After visiting the Arc de
‘It is out of the question that each weekend becomes a meeting or ritual for violence’
Triomphe, Mr Macron spoke with police and firefighters on one of the avenues near the Champs-elysées. Some bystanders applauded him, but more were jeering him, including yellowjacketed protesters chanting: “Macron, resign!”
The president then headed to the Elysée Palace for an emergency meeting with the prime minister, interior minister and top security officials. He made no statement after the encounter.
Benjamin Griveaux, the government’s spokesman, said before the meeting that “all options” would be considered, including imposing a state of emergency, to avoid a repeat of the violence.
“It is out of the question that each weekend becomes a meeting or ritual for violence,” he told Europe 1 radio. Christophe Castaner, the interior minister, said that deploying the army was another measure being considered.
Their comments came as calls were being made on social media for the yellow vests to meet again next Saturday on the Champs-elysées. Mr Macron has asked his prime minister to meet this week with leaders of all political parties and with representatives of the yellow vest movement to try to find a way to end the protests.
But the president has so far refused to roll back taxes on fuel, which he says are needed to fund France’s transition to a low-emission economy.
And he remains a fervent defender of the tax cuts he has delivered for businesses and the wealthy, which he believes are necessary to lower the country’s chronic high unemployment.