Police fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse protesters in Paris who were angry over rising fuel costs and French President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies, the second weekend of “yellow vest” protests that have caused disruption across the country.
Several hundred protesters had converged on the Champs Elysees, where they faced police sent to prevent them from reaching the nearby presidential Elysee Palace.
Some protesters sang the French national anthem, while others carried signs with slogans saying: “Macron, resignation” and “Macron, thief.”
Photo: AP
For more than a week, protesters clad in the fluorescent yellow jackets that all motorists in France must have in their cars have blocked highways across the country with burning barricades and convoys of slow-moving trucks, obstructing access to fuel depots, shopping centers and some factories.
They are opposed to taxes Macron introduced last year on diesel and gasoline, which are designed to encourage people to shift to more environmentally friendly transport.
Alongside the tax, the government has offered incentives to buy green or electric vehicles.
Security forces are concerned that far-left and far-right extremists might infiltrate the demonstrations, escalating the crowd-control challenges.
About 30,000 people were expected to protest in Paris alone, Denis Jacob, secretary-general of police union Alternative Police, told reporters.
“We know there are ultra-right and ultra-left infiltrators. You can also expect gangs from the suburbs and ‘black-blocks,’” he said, referring to a militant protest force.
About 3,000 police officers have been drafted in to work in Paris yesterday, Paris City Hall said, with security forces having to handle a demonstration against sexual violence, a soccer match and a rugby game in the capital on the same day.
On Saturday last week, when nearly 300,000 people took part in the first yellow vest demonstrations countrywide, retailers’ daily revenue fell 35 percent, according to consumer groups.
The unrest is a dilemma for Macron, who casts himself as a champion against climate change, but has been derided as out of touch with common folk and is fighting a slump in popularity.
Despite calls for calm from the government, the yellow vest protests have spread to French territories abroad, including the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, where cars were set on fire.
The unrest has left two dead and 606 injured in France, the Ministry of the Interior said on Thursday.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS