Tear gas was still sprayed on the Champs-Elysees, but fewer protested in Paris.

Some tear gas still, but crowds much smaller

PARIS — A protest movement that has brought the French into the streets for five Saturdays in a row in a major challenge to President Emmanuel Macron lost momentum in its latest nationwide outcry, but the smaller crowds pushed fervently for one of their expanding demands, a citizen’s referendum to help define policy.

The most resonant call Saturday was a leap from the demand for relief from fuel tax hikes that gave birth to the protest in mid-November by rankand-file French wearing yellow safety vests to slow vehicles at the traffic circles that dot France’s countryside.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced in a tweet the death of an eighth person since the start of the protests, implying it occurred at a traffic circle, some of which have been manned day and night by protesters.

“Traffic circles must be freed and the security of all must again become the rule,” he said, in a new effort to tamp down a movement that appears to be losing momentum.

The government put 69,000 security forces into the streets and called for calm after the last two Saturdays of major violence, including vandalization of the outside and inside of the Arc de Triomphe, which cradles the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

“Protesting is a right. So let’s know how to exercise it,” the French government tweeted.

Some 8,000 police, with 14 armored vehicles and water cannons, were out anew in Paris to guard against property destruction and looting that marred the two previous protests.

They fired rounds of tear gas into crowds on the famed Champs-Elysees, where chic shops and restaurants were boarded up, and at dusk turned water on protesters bundled against the cold to disperse them.

Police said 115 people were taken into custody in Paris, most for banding together to commit acts of violence. Seven people were slightly injured. Police in riot gear were seen tackling one protester and dragging him off the Champs-Elysees.

Police estimated Paris protesters numbered 3,000 maximum -- less than half the number a week ago, and the downturn in violence was reflected in demonstrations across the country.

Laurent Cipriani The Associated Press Demonstrators run away through tear gas Saturday in Lyon, central France. The demonstrations against France’s high cost of living were smaller than at previous rallies.