Thousands of 'yellow vests' hit French streets in fifth Saturday of protests
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
possible outbursts of violence. But several major stores, such as the Galeries
Lafayette, were open to welcome Christmas shoppers.
Numbers were down compared to Saturday last week,
a police source said.
Teargas was fired at small groups of protesters in
brief clashes with riot police near the Champs-Elysees.
Close by, a handful of topless activists from the
feminist protest group Femen faced security forces a few meters away from the
Elysee Palace, the president’s residence.
The ‘yellow vest’ movement started in mid-November
with protests at junctions and roundabouts against fuel tax increases, but
quickly became a wider mobilisation against Macron’s economic policies.
Successive weekends of protests in Paris have lead
to vandalism and violent clashes with security forces.
Loic Bollay, 44, marching on the Champs-Elysees in
a yellow vest, said the protests were more subdued than in previous weeks but
the movement would go on until the demonstrators’ grievances were addressed.
