Anger still burns in France
Protesters in Paris try to drive home a message to a government they believe is ignoring the poor.
PARIS — French yellow vest protesters set fires Saturday along a march through Paris to drive home their message to a government they believe is ignoring the poor: that rebuilding the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral isn’t the only problem France needs to solve.
Like the high-visibility vests the protesters wear, the scattered small fires in Paris appeared to be a collective plea to French President Emmanuel Macron’s government to “look at me — I need help too!”
Police fired water cannons and sprayed tear gas to try to control radical elements rampaging on the margins of the largely peaceful march, one of several actions around Paris and other French cities.
The protests marked the 23rd straight weekend of yellow vest actions against Macron’s centrist government, which they see as favoring the wealthy and big business. Protesters view themselves as standing up for beleaguered French workers, students and retirees who have been battered by high unemployment, high taxes and shrinking purchasing power.
But violence and divisions have marred the movement.
Masked protesters hurled paving stones and flares. Helmeted riot police repeatedly charged as they tried to contain the crowd. AP reporters saw at least two journalists injured in the melee. Troublemakers also ransacked at least two stores and one black-clad protester jumped on a parked Mercedes, smashing its windshields.
Paris police said authorities detained more than 200 people by early afternoon and carried out spot checks on more than 20,000 trying to enter the capital for the protest.
The violence contrasted sharply with the peaceful atmosphere at another march through Paris, where demonstrators mourned the Notre Dame blaze while also keeping up the pressure on Macron. They tried to march to Notre Dame itself, but were stopped by police a few hundred yards away.
Many protesters were deeply saddened by the recent fire at a national monument. But at the same time they are angry at the $1 billion in donations for Notre Dame renovations that poured in from French tycoons while their own economic demands remain largely unmet.
“I think what happened at Notre Dame is a great tragedy but humans should be more important than stones,” said protester Jose Fraile.
Some 60,000 police officers mobilized for Saturday’s protests across France, and the heavy security thwarted some tourists trying to enjoy the French capital on a warm spring day.
“Paris is very difficult right now,” said Paul Harlow of Kansas City, Mo., as he looked at the damaged Notre Dame.
Others showed solidarity with the yellow vest cause.
“I am not interested in joining them, but I can understand what they’re angry about,” said Antonio Costes, a retiree from the Paris suburb of Montreuil who came Saturday to see the damage to Notre Dame. “There is a lot of injustice.”
Some yellow vest critics accuse Macron of trying to exploit the fire for political gain. One protester carried a sign targeting the president that read: “Pyromaniac — we are going to carbonize you.”