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Yellow Vests, in First Protest of 2019, Are Met With Tear Gas
Violent clashes were reported in cities across France on Saturday as the government rolled out a tougher response to Yellow Vest protesters who turned out for an eighth weekend of demonstrations.
In Paris, the police fired tear gas and water cannons at protesters who marched through the center of the city, days after President Emmanuel Macron vowed in a New Year's address to restore order “without compromise.”
The Yellow Vest movement, which takes its name from the fluorescent hazard vests adopted by the protesters as a sign of economic distress, began as an outcry over rising fuel taxes and expanded into a broad campaign over money woes.
Saturday’s protests, as in past weekends, began peacefully, but reports of violence grew as the day continued.
Near the Musée d’Orsay, the police used tear gas and flash balls to block hundreds of protesters. Video posted to social media showed protesters fighting hand to hand with club-wielding police officers. Protesters dragged two officers to the ground and kicked them repeatedly, the video showed.
On the Champs-Élysées, which was closed to traffic for hours, protesters threw rocks at the police and officers used a water cannon to disperse the crowd.
A lawmaker and Macron ally, Benjamin Griveaux, had to be evacuated from his office in the capital, according to the newspaper Le Parisien, after protesters stormed his office. And in Nantes, discarded Christmas trees were set ablaze in a square.
Turnout has generally decreased from the mass demonstrations of November that saw hundreds of thousands of people take to streets across France, bringing the center of Paris to a standstill.
But Saturday’s protests — which drew about 3,500 people in Paris and 50,000 nationwide, according to the Interior Ministry — were up somewhat from recent weekends.
A Yellow Vest leader, Eric Drouet, was arrested this past week on charges of organizing an undeclared demonstration, setting off concerns of a backlash that would re-energize the demonstrations.
The weeks of unrest have pressured Mr. Macron to act. In mid-December, he scrapped a contentious fuel tax increase and promised extra cash for minimum wage earners and tax cuts for pensioners.
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