In France, tens of thousands of „yellow vests“ demonstrated yesterday against President Emmanuel Macron’s policies. Nationwide, about 69,000 people took to the streets, as the Ministry of the Interior announced in the evening.
In Paris, therefore, about 4000 „yellow vests“ demonstrated. There were clashes between police and demonstrators at the Place de la Bastille. According to the prefecture, 22 people were arrested there.
Participants decreased slightly
The movement of the „yellow vests“ had called for the eleventh consecutive Saturday to demonstrations against the reform course Macron. Compared to the previous Saturday, the number of participants dropped slightly. Last weekend, 84,000 people participated in the country, compared to 7,000 in Paris.
During the clashes on Paris’s Bastille Square, police use tear gas and a water cannon to push back protesters who threw missiles at police officers.
„Yellow-vested Rioters“
There were also clashes in the „yellow west“ strongholds Toulouse and Bordeaux in southwestern France and in the south in Montpellier and Avignon, as well as in several western French cities. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner condemned the violence by „yellow-vampire rioters“.
For the first time activists on Bastille Square had also called for a „yellow night“. Model was the social movement „Nuit debout“, which protested in 2016 against the labor law reform of the previous socialist government. However, the meeting was quickly ended, according to AFP journalists.
Countermovement to „yellow vests“
Today, a counter-movement to the „yellow vests“ wants to take to the streets for the first time: a group called „Red Scarfs“ (foulards rouges) called for a walk to Bastille Square in the early afternoon. Under the motto „Stop – that’s enough“ she wants to demonstrate against the violence in the more than two months lasting „yellow vest“ protests.
Laurent Soulie, initiator of the „Red Scarfs“, is close to the party The Republic in Motion by President Emmanuel Macron. The 51-year-old and his colleagues campaign for a „peaceful and respectful France“ without „hatred“.
