French police on Saturday fired tear gas under a rain of projectiles and arrested dozens of people as thousands of “yellow vest” anti-government protesters returned to the streets of Paris.
Demonstrators shouted slogans denouncing the police, French President Emmanuel Macron and his pension reforms that have triggered the longest French transport strike in decades.
Macron and his wife, Brigitte, on Friday night had to be rushed briefly from a Paris theater after protesters tried to burst in and disrupt the performance.
Photo: EPA-EFE
With sirens wailing on Saturday, riot police drove across the French capital in dozens of vans to the route where thousands of protesters marched.
The police said 59 people had been arrested by the early afternoon.
There were allegations of police violence after video footage shot by Agence France-Presse FPTV and others showed a young man, his face covered in blood, being arrested and beaten.
Young people wearing masks shouted “revolution” as tear gas drifted by the Bastille.
“The street is ours,” some protesters chanted. “Macron, we’re going to come for you, in your home.”
Saturday’s clashes came on the 45th day of a strike that has hit train and metro traffic and caused misery for millions of commuters in and around Paris in particular.
However, trains are becoming more frequent, and Paris’s metro drivers voted to suspend their action from today, their union UNSA announced on Saturday.
There was no sign of an end to the strike at the Paris Opera, which has lost 14 million euros (US$15 million) with the cancelation of 67 performances.
The Paris Opera orchestra on Saturday gave renditions of Carmen and other works to Parisians and tourists on the steps of the Palais Garnier to show support for the strike.
Under a stream of confetti, they finished with La Marseillaise.
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