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Protest clashes erupt in Paris as anti-Macron rallies return
PARIS, Dec 1, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Police fired tear gas to disperse
protesters trying to tear down barricades on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on
Saturday as hundreds converged on the city for new demonstrations, with anger
over fuel taxes morphing into a wide-ranging anti-government movement.
Clashes between police and demonstrators wearing high-visibility yellow
vests, the symbol of the protest against President Emmanuel Macron, broke out
soon after crowds began gathering near the Arc de Triomphe, at the top of the
famous avenue.
The Champs-Elysees itself was on lockdown, its glittering Christmas
decorations standing in stark contrast to boarded-up storefronts and throngs
of riot police manning barricades and water cannon.
Some officers, wearing protective gear and helmets, were spattered with
vivid yellow paint and targeted by protesters throwing rocks or construction
barricades, or wielding slingshots.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said there were 200 “peaceful”
demonstrators on the Champs Elysees, while “1,500 agitators outside the
security perimeter came to fight”.
Thirty-nine arrests had been, he said on Twitter.
Banks, wine shops and cafes on surrounding streets raced to cover up
windows on Saturday, as the acrid odour of tear gas and burning trash
containers filled the air.
Several protesters wore face masks, while others carried gas masks or ski
goggles.
Other protests were taking place around France by people angry over a
surge in fuel prices this year which they attribute to a series of tax
increases to finance the government’s anti-pollution efforts.
“With all these tax hikes, there’s not much left for eating at the end of
the month,” Philippe, a high school cook in the Essonne region outside Paris,
said near the Champs Elysees on Saturday.
The protests come a week after violent clashes on the avenue last
Saturday, marked by burning barricades and vandalism which Macron compared to
“war scenes”.
Some 5,000 officers have been mobilised and were carrying out ID checks
and searches for people hoping to reach the Champs Elysees.
“Our responsibility is to ensure that everything goes as well as
possible,” Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said while touring the
forces on the avenue.
Castaner had already said on Thursday that “far left and far right
activists” were preparing for fresh clashes with the police.
– ‘We want our dignity’ –
The “yellow vest” movement erupted on social media in October and has
since become a wider protest against Macron, who is accused of failing to
recognise the rising costs of living that has left many struggling.
The first day of protests, on November 17, attracted around 282,000
people, while some 106,000 turned out last Saturday, including 8,000 in the
capital.
The protests include many pensioners and has been most active in small
urban and rural areas where it has blocked roads, closed motorway toll
booths, and even walled up the entrance to tax offices.
Two people have died and hundreds have been injured in the protests which
opinion polls suggest still attract the support of two out of three French
people.
Attempts by the government to negotiate with the movement have failed, in
large part because representatives have insisted on public talks broadcast on
TV.
“We want our dignity back and we want to be able to live from our work,
which is absolutely not the case today,” Jason Herbert said after walking out
of talks with Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Friday.
Macron has sought to douse the anger by promising three months of
nationwide talks on how best to transform France into a low-carbon economy
without penalising the poor.
He also vowed to slow the rate of increase in fuel taxes if international
oil prices rise too rapidly but only after a tax hike due in January.
But many protesters were unconvinced by Macron’s speech on Tuesday.
“What we need is something tangible, not just smoke and mirrors,” said
Yoann Allard, a 30-year-old farmhand.
– ‘Resign!’ –
Trade union leaders, who met Friday with Philippe, have called for a
moratorium on January’s tax hike, a suggestion which some pro-Macron members
of parliament have started to endorse.
The anger has reached French overseas territories, especially on the
Indian Ocean island of Reunion.
The minister for overseas territories, Annick Girardin, who was dispatched
to the island to talk to protesters, was forced to cut short a meeting Friday
with demonstrators after they booed her and shouted “Macron, resign!”
The movement has spilled across to neighbouring Belgium, where riot police
used water cannon Friday to disperse stone-throwing “yellow vest” protesters
who burned two police vehicles in the centre of Brussels.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1859 hrs