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News ID: 60788
Publish Date : 14 December 2018 - 22:00
France Deploys Thousands of Troops

Yellow Vest Protests Spread to London

LONDON/PARIS (Dispatches) -- Demonstrators donning yellow vests took over three bridges in central London Friday as they demanded Britain's exit from the EU.
Campaigners chanting "Brexit now” stopped cars from crossing Westminster Bridge, Tower Bridge and then Waterloo Bridge as British Prime Minister Theresa May held crunch talks with EU leaders in Brussels.
People wearing yellow vests similar to those worn during protests in France gathered by the Houses of Parliament at noon to first occupy Westminster Bridge.
The protestors were eventually moved on by police after about 15 minutes before heading to Downing Street, where they chanted pro-Brexit songs before moving on to Tower Bridge.
The group wore yellow jackets, reminiscent of the gilet jaune movement in France, in which demonstrators donning yellow vests have brought Paris to a standstill on consecutive weekends this month over minimum wage and tax complaints.
France will deploy tens of thousands of police nationwide and around 8,000 in Paris Saturday to handle a fifth weekend of "yellow vest” protests despite concessions by President Emmanuel Macron.
The chief of police in Paris said concerns remained about violent groups infiltrating the protests. Anti-riot officers will protect landmarks such as the Arc de Triomphe and prevent people getting close to the presidential palace.
"We need to be prepared for worst-case scenarios," police chief Michel Delpuech told RTL radio.
The capital has seen heavy disruption over the past three weeks when major stores shut, hotels suffered cancellations and tourists stayed away during the usually busy run-up to Christmas.
Nicknamed "Acte V" of the protests, the yellow vest demonstrators will take to the streets this weekend as France recovers from an unrelated attack on a Christmas market in the eastern city of Strasbourg on Tuesday, when a gunman shot and killed three people and wounded several others.
Hundreds of police officers were redeployed to Strasbourg to search for the gunman, who was shot dead in an exchange of fire Thursday evening.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said it was time for the yellow vests to scale down their protests and accept they had achieved their aims. Police officers also deserved a break, he added.
"I'd rather have the police force doing their real job, chasing criminals and combating the terrorism threat, instead of securing roundabouts where a few thousand people keep a lot of police busy," he said.
The protests have taken a toll on the economy, with output in the last quarter of the year set to be half initial projections, while Macron's concessions are likely to push the budget deficit above an EU agreed limit.
The yellow vest movement began as a protest against fuel taxes and then grew into an anti-Macron alliance.
Many people wearing the high-visibility motorists' safety jackets which are the symbol of the protests were manning barricades outside cities Friday.