PARIS: Police fired tear gas and water cannon Saturday in central Paris against “yellow vest” protesters demanding French President Emmanuel Macron roll back tax hikes on motor fuel.
Some 3,000 police were deployed in the capital as demonstrators who have blocked French roads over the past week wearing their now signature high-visibility jackets caused another day of disruption after calls to bring Paris to a standstill.
AFP reporters said several thousand had gathered by early Saturday on the famous Champs-Elysees where they clashed with police trying to prevent them moving down to the Place de la Concorde near the Louvre museum.
Police said the protestors had tried to break through a cordon several times but had been prevented from doing so, with tear gas used more than once.
“We have just demonstrated peacefully, and we were teargassed,” said Christophe, 49, who traveled from the Isere region in eastern France with his wife to protest in the capital. “We see how we are welcomed in Paris.”
Police said Saturday’s incidents were linked to the “presence of members of the far-right who harassed the security forces.”
Govt says lower turnout
Nearly 300,000 people blocked motorways, roundabouts, businesses, and fuel depots last Saturday.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that by late morning, only 23,000 protestors had turned out across France, compared with about 124,000 at the same time the previous Saturday.
Castener said 8,000 took to the streets in Paris, with about 5,000 on the Champs-Elysees. He blamed the violence in the iconic boulevard on the far-right and Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally (formerly the National Front) party.
The police were facing seditious groups “who notably had responded to the call of Marine Le Pen and want to attack the country’s institutions just as they want to attack (government) lawmakers,” the minister said.
Le Pen rejected the remarks, saying she had never called for violence and claiming the government was trying to make her the scapegoat.
Police said eight people had so far been arrested for throwing projectiles.
