Macron tours Paris streets hit by worst riots in a generation
● Security talks after 413 arrested in third successive weekend of clashes
President Emmanuel Macron has visited the graffiti-damaged Arc de Triomphe monument and held an emergency meeting on security, a day after central Paris was hit by France’s worst riot in a generation.
Mr Macron, who met his prime minister and interior and environment ministers, has vowed that those responsible for the violence and the damages will pay for their actions.
His tour of France’s beloved monument yesterday came just hours after he flew back from the G20 summit in Argentina.
Mr Macron paid tribute to the Unknown Soldier from the First World War whose tomb is under the monument.
He then headed to a nearby avenue where activists wearwere ing yellow jackets had torched cars, smashed windows, looted shops and battled police on Saturday.
There he met firefighters, police officers and restaurant owners.
Paris police said 133 people had been injured and 412 had been arrested as protesters trashed the streets of the capital during a demonstration against rising taxes and the high cost of living.
Charred cars, broken windows and overturned security fences from the riot littered many of the city’s most popular tourist areas, including streets near the Arc de Triomphe, around the famed Champs-elysées Avenue, and the Tuileries garden.
Graffiti was also sprayed on many shops and buildings.
Activists wearing yellow jackets had thrown rocks at police and tagged the Arc de Triomphe with multi-coloured graffiti.
French police responded with tear gas and water cannon, closing down dozens of streets and Métro stations as they tried to contain the riot.
Police said 23 police officers
among the injured and 378 of the arrested have been put in police custody.
By yesterday morning, Paris’s council workers were cleaning up the graffiti on the Arc de Triomphe.
One slogan read “Yellow jackets will triumph” – a reference to the fluorescent yellow vests that protesters wore to demand relief for France’s beleaguered workers.
Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said Saturday’s violence was due to extremists who hijacked the
protest, people who came “to loot, break and hit police forces”.
He was asked why thousands of French police could not prevent the damage, especially to the Arc de Triomphe.
“Yesterday we made a choice ... to protect people before material goods,” Mr Griveaux told French broadcaster BFM TV.
It was the third straight weekend of clashes in Paris involving activists dressed in the yellow vests of a new protest movement and France’s worst urban violence since at least 2005.
The scene in Paris contrasted sharply with protests elsewhere in France on Saturday that were mostly peaceful.
“It’s difficult to reach the end of the month. People work and pay a lot of taxes and we are fed up,” said Rabah Mendez, a pro tester who marched peacefully on Saturday in Paris.
The demonstrators say Mr Macron’s government does not care about the problems of ordinary people.
The grassroots protests began on 17 November with motorists upset over a fuel tax rise. But the demonstrations now involve a broad range of demands related to France’s high cost of living.
Mr Macron, speaking in Buenos Aires before he flew home, welcomed the views of the pro testers but said there was no place for violence in public discourse.
“[Violence] has nothing to do with the peaceful expression of a legitimate anger” and “no cause justifies” attacks on police or pillaging shops and burning buildings, mr mac ron said.