Following their first meeting with a French minister, official 'yellow vest' spokespeople Eric Drouet and Priscillia Ludosky confirmed on Tuesday that another protest at Paris’s Champs-Elysées is being organized for this coming Saturday, December 1st.
“The wish of all gilets jaunes is to continue like this every Saturday, marching on the Champs-Elysees,” Drouet, a truck driver, told journalists after his meeting with French Environment Minister François de Rugy.
“There is still no real desire to improve people’s lives,” Drouet said after the talks which followed a speech by French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday in which the president attempted to appease the protest group.
READ ALSO:
French Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition Francois de Rugy sat next to Yellow Vest spokesperople Eric Drouet Priscilla Ludosky.
Macron, who likened the protests in Paris last Saturday to “scenes of war”, added more fuel to the fire on Tuesday by addressing the yellow vest movement’s demands for the first time.
“It’s the firmness of the Interior Ministry that created all the excesses we saw on Saturday that’s to blame.
“Being attacked with batons and tear gas by riot police from 8 am till noon created tensions among the 'yellow vests'. There would have been less violence the entire day if police had acted more calmly.”
Violent behaviour among the 'yellow vests' has also been attributed to extremists both on the left and the right who infiltrated the ranks of the movement.
But despite the fact that a poll last week showed around 70 percent of French people found the protests to be justified, calls for another demo on Saturday have been met by fear and complaints online that there will be further violence.
Member comments