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FRANCE-PROTESTS-POLITICS
Paris in pictures: abandoned barricades and burned cars
PARIS, Dec 2, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Parisians and business owners were
inspecting the damage on Sunday after a day of rioting at some of the
capital’s most famed tourist spots.
Teams of cleaners were moving around, sweeping up glass, removing graffiti
and the remains of barricades, and towing away burned out vehicles.
At the Concorde metro station at the entrance to the Tuileries garden,
metal barriers, boards from a nearby building site and rubbish bins remained
piled up.
Nearby, a section of the wrought-iron metal railings had been torn down
around the gardens, which were built by French royals but opened to the
public after the 1789 Revolution. Shop owners around the Champs-Elysees,
Opera and Place Vendome area, all popular tourist spots in the centre of the
city, were inspecting damage to their properties.
Many shop windows had been shattered and revolutionary graffiti had been
daubed on walls.
“Burn,” read one simple inscription. “Washed away by a revolutionary wave,”
read another.
Slogans had also been scrawled on the Arc de Triomphe, a monument to the
country’s war dead that just a fortnight ago played host to world leaders who
commemorated the end of the First World War there.
“The yellow vests will win,” said one slogan, a reference to he so-called
“yellow vest” anti-government protest movement.
“Increase the RSA,” said another, referring to the RSA welfare payment for
the unemployed.
In front of some the capital’s most exclusive addresses around the Champs-
Elysees area, the carcasses of burned out cars could be seen.
Police fired hundreds of canisters of tear gas on Saturday as they battled
gangs of rioters, many of whom wore gas masks and ski goggles during the
clashes.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner attributed the violence to
“specialists in sowing conflict, specialists in destruction”.
Far-right groups and anarchists are thought to have been responsible for
the violence during a day when 75,000 people demonstrated nation-wide,
according to interior ministry figures.
BSS/AFP/RY/1723 hrs