Paris deals with new round of protests
VIOLENCE erupted on Saturday in Paris where Yellow Vests movement staged a fresh action to mark its first anniversary amid continued social unrest over President Emmanuel Macron’s economic reforms.
Tear gas clouds rose into the air near Porte d’Italie in southern Paris where first clashes between police and protestors broke out early in the morning after a few hundred demonstrators set on fire barricades and threw projectiles at police officers.
Police responded with tear gas to disperse the crowd. It also intervened to clear the Peripherique ring which “Yellow Vest” tried to occupy.
Tension flared further after a group of masked youth tried to vandalize a shopping center. They overturned many vehicles and torched several bins in Place d’Italie. Tear gas and stun grenades had been used to push back the crowd.
By 3pm, 61 individuals were arrested and more than 1,400 preventive checks had been carried out, according to Paris prefecture.
Flashpoints
Authorities have banned protests in the Champs Elysees avenue, the Arc de Triomphe monument, and near the National Assembly which had been the flashpoints of clashes and vandalism in last year’s social unrest.
Amid continued social uproar over the government’s economic and fiscal roadmap which protestors say favor the rich, “Yellow Vests” are planning 270 rallies and blockades for this weekend.
“I think ‘Yellow Vest’ demonstrators will mobilize massively to show that anger is still there. It is bigger today than it was a year ago because Emmanuel Macron did not answer our demands...to restore fiscal justice,” Francois Boulo, the movement’s representative in Rouen in northwest France told BFMTV news channel.
On November 17, 2018, the movement, which got its name from the high visibility vests drivers keep in their cars, started as a campaign against an increase in diesel’s price, most commonly used car fuel in France, that Macron said is necessary to combat climate change.
It had been morphed into social rebellion with sometimes violent action causing weekly chaos in French cities, notably in Paris.
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