This Saturday was the fourth consecutive weekend of protests, with authorities calling in reinforcements to beef up security. That included sending armored vehicles of the country’s military police (Gendarmerie) to Paris., which deployed near the iconic Arc de Triomphe, the scene of previous clashes, World News reported.
French riot police fired tear gas and water cannon in Paris on Saturday, trying to stop tens of thousands of people from converging on the presidential palace to express their anger at high taxes and President Emmanuel Macron. Protesters smashed store windows and set fires around Paris and clashed with police, who fired tear gas and deployed water canon throughout the day in the French capital.
At least 135 people were injured in the protests on Saturday, including 17 police officers, while, throughout France, over 1,700 demonstrators were detained.
A total of 1,723 people were arrested across France during the latest round of "Yellow Vest" protests, in which demonstrators clashed with riot police, the interior ministry said on Sunday, adding that of these, 1,220 were ordered held in custody.
A total of 136,000 people demonstrated across France, including more than 10,000 in Paris.
Yellow Vest mayhem hit the country for the 4th consecutive weekend. Despite the repeated skirmishes, Saturday’s anti-government protests appeared less chaotic and violent than a week ago, when crowds defaced the Arc de Triomphe, set vehicles ablaze and looted high-end stores in the city’s worst rioting since 1968.
The protest over the tax hike have been plaguing Paris and other major French cities since mid-November. The action, spearheaded by activists wearing yellow vests, has been mired in violence last Saturday and has seen over 130 people injured and at least 412 arrested. Four people, including an elderly woman, have died amid the fierce clashes between rioting demonstrators and police.
Following last weekend’s riots in central Paris and dozens of other cities and towns across France, the government decided to abandon its plan to raise the fuel tax next year. But protesters want the French president to go further to help hard-pressed households, including an increase to the minimum wage, lower taxes, higher salaries, cheaper energy, better retirement provisions. Some of them have demanded Emmanuel Macron’s resignation. They say he is part of an elitist coterie that neither understands, nor cares how they live.
The Yellow Vests' leader said the French government’s six-month moratorium on fuel tax hikes wasn’t what the Yellow Vests wanted, adding that people want "the baguette", not crumbs, and will take to the streets again on Saturday.
“We didn’t want a suspension, we want the past increase in the tax on fuels to be canceled immediately," Benjamin Cauchy, the organizer of the Yellow Vests movement, told BFM TV.
By announcing the half-year moratorium, government is “taking the French people for a ride” in an attempt to win time, he stated.
"The French are not sparrows and don’t want the crumbs the government is giving them. They want the baguette," he stressed.