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Yellow Vest Protests Observe Anniversary with More Violence in France

November 19, 2019

 

Thousands of people took to the streets of Paris to mark the first anniversary of the yellow vest movement, November 16, 2019

 

Yellow Vests stage rallies, shut down famed Paris store on protest anniversary

AFP, France 24, 17/11/2019

France’s Yellow Vest demonstrators staged peaceful rallies and occupied a top Parisian department store on Sunday, marking twelve months since the start of their protest movement.

The glitzy Galeries Lafayette store in the French capital’s Opera shopping district was evacuated after dozens of protesters chanting anti-capitalist and anti-government slogans took over the third floor.

The protesters were expelled shortly after by security staff.

The store – one of the top destinations in Paris for moneyed foreign tourists, which was targeted by the demonstrators as a "consumerist temple" – said it would remain closed for the rest of the day.

The protest came on a second day of demonstrations to mark the anniversary of a leaderless revolt that badly rattled President Emmanuel Macron's government.

Twenty people were arrested Sunday in Paris but in most places the protests were peaceful.

On Saturday, police in Paris had battled rioters for hours around the southeastern Place d'Italie square, where a Yellow Vest march was banned by the authorities.

Several cars were overturned or set alight, bus shelters were smashed and a monument to a World War II hero was defaced by demonstrators dressed in black, who wore masks to hide their faces.               

‘Unworthy of a democratic state’

A total of 173 people were arrested in Paris on Saturday, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told Europe 1 radio. Nationwide, police made 254 arrests.

Castaner, who has been criticised for failing to act on widespread cases of police brutality during past protests, said the Paris demonstrators were mainly "thugs, brutes who came to fight the security forces and prevent the emergency services from doing their work".

But historian Mathilde Larrère wrote on Twitter that she and two friends were prevented from leaving the protest after the clashes began because of police kettling tactics.

She accused the police of tactics "unworthy of a democratic state", citing "the repeated teargassing and [stun] grenades going off everywhere".

In rural France, by contrast, the mood of the anniversary was more festive. Many Yellow Vests returned to the traffic roundabouts they occupied last year when they began rebelling against Macron's economic policies.

The interior ministry put the number of demonstrators on Saturday at 28,600 nationwide, whereas organisers said nearly 40,000 people had rallied – a far cry from the estimated 282,000 who took part in the first big day of protests on November 17, 2018.

The Yellow Vests, who accuse Macron of ruling on behalf of the urban elite, are adamant that they have not gone away.

Some in the movement are now looking to overcome their differences with trade unions, which are planning a major transport strike over pension reforms starting on December 5.

https://www.france24.com/en/20191117-yellow-vests-stage-rallies-shut-down-paris-store-on-protest-anniversary

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Yellow vest protests: More than 100 arrested as violence returns to Paris

16 November 2019

Police in Paris arrested more than 100 people as protests to mark the first anniversary of the anti-government yellow vest movement turned violent.

Yellow vest (gilets jaunes) rallies took place nationwide on Saturday, a year after they first erupted.

Tear gas and water cannon were used by police in Paris, where thousands of protesters thronged the streets.

Rioters unleashed some of the worst violence the city has seen in months.

With many clad in black and wearing masks to hide their faces, rioters in parts of the city burned barricades, vandalised banks, set rubbish bins on fire and hurled cobblestones at police.

By Saturday evening, Paris police said 147 people had been arrested across the capital.

The nationwide protests were intended to send a message to French President Emmanuel Macron, whose government has been accused of ignoring the needs of ordinary citizens.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

France fuel protests: Who are the people in the yellow vests?

Media captionFrance fuel protests: Who are the people in the yellow vests?

The protests first erupted in November last year over fuel price rises, but grew to cover wider grievances, including stagnating wages, living costs and economic inequality.

Mr Macron attempted to quell the protests with promises of tax cuts, higher pensions and reforms, but many still feel he has not done enough.

Anger of yellow vests still grips France a year on

"We're here even if Macron doesn't like it," demonstrators chanted as they marched through Paris on Saturday.

The spirit of rebellion is still strong

At the Place d'Italie today, in south-east Paris, the rioters were out again. They burned barricades, smashed the front of a bank, defaced a World War Two memorial; and they flung stones and rocks at police, who responded with clouds and clouds of tear gas.

There hasn't been a day of violence in Paris like this linked to the yellow vest movement for many months. The rioters may only have been a minority, but the other yellow vests did nothing to stop them. They were there, they said, to show they hadn't gone away.

Police tactics against yellow vest protests are now ruthless and effective. A year on, the yellow vests are not the force they were, but the spirit of rebellion is still strong among many people in France.

Image copyrightGetty Images Image caption Protesters set up barricades against French riot police on Place d'Italie

Elsewhere in the city, demonstrators and police clashed near the Porte de Champerret, close to the Arc de Triomphe.

"We are a bit disappointed that this has descended into violence," said one protester, who travelled from eastern France to Paris to mark the first anniversary.

There were also skirmished between police and protesters in other cities, including Bordeaux, Nantes and Lyon.

Image copyrightGetty Images Image caption French riot police run past a vehicle set alight during yellow vests protests

Much of the anger is directed at Mr Macron, who came to power in 2017 vowing to face down protesters and drive through long-postponed economic reforms.

One of Mr Macron's least-popular measures, early in his presidency, was to scrap a special wealth tax.

Yellow vest protesters accuse Mr Macron of protecting the Parisian elite, especially the rich, while neglecting the hardship of citizens in the provinces.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50447733  

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