Yellow Vest Protests Hit France for 14th Weekend

Date: 16 February 2019 - 21:19

News ID: ۶۳۱۸۶

PARIS (Dispatches) — Yellow vest protesters held demonstrations around Paris and the rest of France on Saturday despite a national debate launched by President Emmanuel Macron to convince them to end their agitation.
Hundreds of people gathered peacefully Saturday on the Champs-Elysees, the stage of past rioting. This marked the 14th straight weekend of demonstrations by a movement that started against fuel taxes and grew to a mass movement against Macron and his pro-business policies.
France’s "yellow vest” protests are part of a humanist movement aimed at improving the lives of everyone in the country, one demonstrator, defending those who took to the streets.
The demonstrations are named for motorists’ high-visibility jackets, which began in November against politicians and a government they see as out of touch.
"I can understand that some people have had enough, but we’re not doing this just for us,” said Madeleine, a 33-year old unemployed protester. "It’s a very humanist movement and we’re doing this for everyone. So if right now they’re fed up, then too bad for them.”
There has been infighting between leaders of the grassroots movement, although some have outlined plans to extend the weekly protests to Sunday.
The number of protesters has fluctuated between300,000 nationwide in November to around 50,000 last week, according to government estimates.
In Paris, protesters gathered at the symbolic rallying point at Arc de Triomphe, a flashpoint of violent clashes with the police in the early days of the protest, before marching toward the Eiffel Tower and through other majors streets in Paris.
Protesters also gathered in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, and Strasbourg in the east, while some protesters tried to block a depot operated by online retail giant Amazon in Toulouse, in the south of France, BFM Television reported.
Ten people have been killed in protest-related traffic accidents and hundreds injured since the movement kicked off on November 17.
Police have been criticized by protesters for the use of rubber projectiles that have left dozens of people injured.
Paris has deployed 5,000 police around the capital, notably around government buildings and the Champs-Elysees, which was the stage of recent violence. About 80,000 police are spread out nationally.