1 dead, scores injured in French fuel tax protests
PARIS — One protester was killed and 227 other people were injured — eight seriously — at roadblocks set up around villages, towns and cities across France on Saturday as citizens angry with rising fuel taxes rose up in a grassroots movement, posing a new challenge to beleaguered President Emmanuel Macron.
Police officers lobbed tear gas canisters at demonstrators on the famed Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris as groups of “yellow jackets,” as the protesters called themselves, tried to make their way to the presidential Elysee Palace. Later, hundreds of protesters entered the bottom of the street dotted with luxury shops where the palace is located — and where Macron lives — before being pushed back by security forces with shields.
In a similar scenario, police cleared out the huge traffic circle around the Arc de Triomphe, paralyzed for hours by protesters.
French Interior Ministry officials counted nearly 283,000 protesters, mostly peaceful, throughout the day at more than 2,000 sites, some setting bonfires or flying balloons.
However, some demonstrations turned violent. In Troyes, southeast of Paris, about 100 people invaded the prefecture, the local representation of the state, damaging the inside, Interior Ministry officials said. In Quimper, in Brittany, security forces used water cannon to disperse hostile protesters.
The protester who died, a 63-yearold woman, was killed when a driver caught in the blockade accelerated in a panic at Pont-de-Beauvoisin, near Chambery, in eastern France, according to Louis Laugier, the prefect, or top state official, in the Savoie region. A confrontation with protesters “got heated up for no reason” and the driver accelerated her minivan after “people started rattling her car,” a protester who witnessed the incident told BFMTV, identifying himself only as Philippe. He said the woman told them she was taking her daughter to a doctor.
A total of 117 people were arrested. The nationwide protest was unusual because it arose from within the citizenry, backed neither by unions nor politicians, although some took part in a clear bid for supporters. It was unclear whether the upstart movement, without a leader, would survive, and what problems it might pose for Macron.
The planned increase in fuel taxes, notably for diesel fuel, spoke to those French who feel the president has asked ordinary citizens to make the largest efforts in his bid to transform France. Those French who have a hard time making ends meet often rely on cheaper diesel fuel.
Macron wants to close the gap between the price of diesel fuel and gasoline as part of his strategy to wean France off fossil fuels.