Paris march devolves into mayhem

Yellow vest demonstrators veer from approved path

PARIS — French security forces fired tear gas and flash-balls after a march through picturesque central Paris went from peaceful to provocative Saturday as several thousand protesters staged the yellow vest movement’s first action of 2019 to keep up pressure on President Emmanuel Macron.

A riverboat restaurant moored below the clashes on the left bank of the Seine River caught fire. Smoke and tear gas wafted above the Orsay Museum and the gold dome of the French Academy as riot police moved front and center when protesters deviated from an officially approved path.

Police boats patrolled the river, while motorcycles and a car were set on fire on the Boulevard Saint Germain.

Protesters made their way to the Champs-Elysees Avenue, the famed boulevard that has been at the center of previous yellow vest demonstrations, many removing their distinctive vests and mixing with shoppers.

Riot police moved in with a water cannon to evacuate the avenue. A line of parked cars burned on a nearby street.

In a first, the building housing the office of the French government spokesman was attacked. Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux was evacuated after the front door of the building was partially destroyed.

“It wasn’t me who was attacked. … It was the institutions, the democratic form of government,” Griveaux said later.

Those who did this “attacked the house of France,” he said.

It was the first such attack on government property since the yellow vest movement began weekly protests in mid-November. Protesters have tried to reach the presidential Elysee Palace, which is protected like a bunker.

Saturday’s march had been declared in advance and approved, in contrast to some illegal December demonstrations that degenerated into vandalism, looting and chaos.

The atmosphere was initially calm in the French capital but turned when some protesters tried to cross the river on a pedestrian bridge not on the official route from City Hall to the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament. Police used clubs and tear gas, then held the bridge in a standoff while violence broke out.

Some confrontations took place in other cities around France, with tear gas fired in Bordeaux and in Rouen in Normandy.

Protesters were looking to breathe new life into the yellow vest movement, named after the fluorescent protective gear French motorists must keep in their cars. The protests were launched in anger over fuel tax hikes but have swelled with broader anger over Macron’s economic policies, deemed to favor the rich.

Kamil Zihnioglu The Associated Press Demonstrators stand in tear gas thrown by riot police during a protest in Paris on Saturday. Protests were held in Paris and other French cities.