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News ID: 60833
Publish Date : 15 December 2018 - 21:28

Protests Hit France for Fifth Weekend

PARIS (Dispatches) -- Thousands of protesters took to the streets of French cities on Saturday in the fifth weekend of nationwide demonstrations against Emmanuel Macron’s government, despite calls to hold off after a gun attack in Strasbourg earlier this week.
In Paris, police were out in force to contain outbursts of violence. They fired water cannon and teargas in the afternoon to disperse groups of protesters in clashes with riot police on the Champs-Elysees and adjacent streets.
French media broadcast footage of clashes between police and protesters in Nantes, western France, and further south in Bordeaux.
The "yellow vest” movement started in mid-November with protests at junctions and roundabouts against fuel tax increases, but quickly became a wider mobilization against Macron’s economic policies.
Successive weekends of protests in Paris have lead to violent clashes with security forces.  
Loic Bollay, 44, marching on the Champs-Elysees in a yellow vest, said the movement would go on until the demonstrators’ grievances were addressed.
The Interior Minister said around 69,000 police were active on Saturday with a reinforced presence in the cities of Toulouse, Bordeaux and Saint-Etienne.
According to official figures, 33,500 protesters had been counted in France by 1300 GMT.
In Paris, more than 2,000 protestors marched in groups in several neighborhoods, and at least 148 were arrested by mid-afternoon, according to a Paris police official.
"My wife's unemployed too and we live on 700 euros (800 dollars) a month. It's tough, we're always struggling," Monaem Zarhouni, a 43-year-old father of two, told AFP in the capital on Saturday.
"Last time, we were here for taxes," a 28-year-old "yellow vest" called Jeremy told AFP as he arrived on the Champs-Elysees in the freezing cold.
"This is for the institutions: we want more direct democracy," he said, adding that people needed to "shout to make themselves heard".
Throughout the morning, riot police played a game of cat-and-mouse with groups of hundreds of protesters moving around the centre of Paris, much of which has been cordoned off from traffic.
Outside Paris, groups of "yellow vests" continued to occupy roundabouts to slow down traffic, and there were jams on the A6, A7, A61 and A64 motorways in southern France.
Authorities reported the seventh death linked to the demonstrations in a fatal road accident Friday evening near the France-Belgium border caused by a blockade.
More than 1,400 people have been injured since the protests began on November 17.
The yellow vest movement, which takes its name from the fluorescent safety vests French motorists must have in their vehicles, has been fueled by a sense that Macron’s government is hurting ordinary workers and retirees with too many taxes. Without any clear form or leadership, it has attracted a wide range of disgruntled people across France’s political spectrum, including some violent militants.
"Respect my existence or expect my resistance,” read one banner held aloft by protesters.
On Friday, President Macron called for a return to calm in France after nearly a month of protests by the so-called "yellow vest” movement against his government’s policies. The demonstrations have hit growth and caused widespread disruption.
"France needs calm, order and a return to normal,” Macron said, after a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels.
In a televised address to the nation on Monday, Macron announced wage rises for the poorest workers and tax cuts for pensioners in further concessions meant to end the movement, but many said they would maintain pressure.
The government, as well as several unions and opposition politicians called on protesters to stay off the streets on Saturday, after four people were killed in a gun attack at a Christmas market in the historic city of Strasbourg.