Lock-down as ‘ultra-violent’ protesters head for Paris
PARIS was braced for a day of “ultra-violent” unrest today as it went into lockdown before thousands descended on the capital for a fourth successive Saturday of “yellow vest” protests.
Many stores, museums and landmarks, including the Louvre, Eiffel Tower and Galeries Lafayette, shut for security reasons. Luxury boutiques, restaurants and businesses on the Champs-elysees and around the presidential palace were under orders to close. Many were being boarded up around the city.
Meanwhile, six French league football games were cancelled.
“According to our information, radicalised and rebellious people will try to mobilise tomorrow,” warned Christophe Castaner, the interior minister.
While he said the protesters would only number “several thousand,” he added: “Some ultra-violent people want to take part.” He did not rule out “foreign” agitators being among them.
An unprecedented 89,000 police and gendarmes will be deployed around the country today, a third more than last weekend, in an attempt to avoid a repeat of those riots – the worst since the 1968 student uprising.
One woman was arrested for possession of two firearms after posting a message saying: “A good cop is a dead cop.” Elsewhere in France, police seized 28 petrol bombs at a roundabout in Montauban near Toulouse, as well as three homemade bombs.
Around 8,000 members of the security forces will guard landmarks in Paris where rioters last weekend torched 200 cars, looted shops and vandalised the Arc de Triomphe. For the first time in decades, they will bring in 12 armoured vehicles capable of clearing burning barricades.
Criticised for being too static, forces were this weekend expected to adopt a more mobile formation.
Rémy Heitz, the Paris prosecutor, said police had also been given the power to carry out stop-and-search checks at “sensitive points” in the city.
Security forces were said by the French media to fear a cocktail of farright and Left militants, infuriated provincial “yellow vests” with no prior history of clashing with police, and looters from the deprived suburbs.
Anne Hidalgo, the Paris mayor, issued a plea to spare the city, saying: “Take care of Paris on Saturday because Paris belongs to all the French people.”
Given the warnings, prominent protesters dubbed “the free yellow vests” urged people to stay away from the capital and called for “calm, respect of public assets and security forces”.
Turning up would be to fall into a “government trap” to lump together moderate demonstrators calling for lower taxes and higher purchasing power and “vandals”, they said.
“The government wants to pass us off as rioters; that’s not the case,” said Benjamin Cauchy, one of the yellow vest “spokespeople” who have received death threats from more radical elements. “We’re open to dialogue,” he said. They were refused an audience at the Elysée Palace but the prime minister was due to meet them last night.
Another high-profile “yellow vest” was placed under investigation for “provoking a crime” after he urged protesters to storm the Elysée.
Polls suggested that while 70 per cent of French support the “yellow vest” movement, six out of 10 people were “worried” about violence.
In the midst of his most dangerous crisis since being elected, Mr Macron has gone virtually off the radar in recent days, hunkered down at the presidential palace and reliant on Edouard Philippe, his prime minister, to make announcements and offer concessions.
Mr Macron faced more unrest yesterday after widespread outrage over footage showing the arrest of lycée students protesting against education reforms outside Paris.
Filmed on Thursday at Mantes-lajolie, the video showed a group of students on their knees with their hands behind their heads. They were being watched over by armed police officers, their faces were hidden by ski masks.