Paris: Champs-Élysées braces for new 'yellow vest' protests
AFP/The Local France - [email protected]
Published: 30 Nov, 2018 CET.
Updated: Sat 1 Dec 2018 09:28 CET
French authorities are to bar traffic from the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Saturday and allow in pedestrians only after strict ID checks in an effort to prevent a repeat of last week's violence that left the famous avenue looking like a war zone.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced the measures on Thursday in an interview with state television.
He said all access to the Champs-Elysees would be "very tight", with bag searches and systematic requests for identity papers from anybody trying to enter.
Extra police would be on hand and in case of "provocations... we will make arrests and will deliver them to justice," he said.
Police sources told AFP that up to 5,000 officers could be mobilised in the operation.
The unusual measures come after the luxury shopping avenue was the scene last weekend of an unauthorised protest by demonstrators angry at high fuel taxes and government policies which turned violent, with makeshift roadblocks thrown up and set on fire. Other protests took place across the country.
READ ALSO:
-
No fuel taxes or Macron's head: What do the 'yellow vests' actually want?
-
'Yellow vests': 80 percent of French people consider Macron's measures 'insufficient'
Photo: AFP
The protest movement is called the "yellow vests" after the high-visibility jackets the demonstrators wear -- a required safety garment that has to be carried in cars in France. It started two weeks ago, snowballing from grievances voiced in less-well-off rural and non-urban areas.
Much of the movement's anger is directed at President Emmanuel Macron, who is broadly unpopular and seen as arrogant as he tries to bring about economic reforms that so far have had no effect in boosting citizens' spending power.
Macron has vowed to forge on with his policies, saying they were "necessary" to improve France's pro-environmental shift -- though he insisted repeatedly he had heard the protesters' anger.
The president has sought to douse the anger by promising three months of nationwide talks on how best to transform France into a low-carbon economy without penalising the poor.
He also vowed to slow the rate of increase in fuel taxes if international oil prices rise too rapidly but only after a tax hike due in January.
On Friday, the government tried -- mostly in vain -- to talk to representatives of the "yellow vest" movement, named after the high-visibility jackets which motorists are required to carry in their cars.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe invited eight "representatives" to join him in his office. But only two turned up, and one walked out after being told he could not invite TV cameras in to broadcast the encounter live to the nation.
Castaner has sought to portray the "yellow vest" movement as directed by hard-right and hard-left political groups. In his TV interview, he spoke again of "the ultra-left and ultra-right" intent on violence.
But the protesters themselves reject any political affiliation and say their grievances are grassroot and genuine.
An online petition launched by one of their members in Paris calling for fuel taxes to be cut received over a million signatures by Thursday, making it one of top two most popular in France on the change.org website.
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Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced the measures on Thursday in an interview with state television.
He said all access to the Champs-Elysees would be "very tight", with bag searches and systematic requests for identity papers from anybody trying to enter.
Extra police would be on hand and in case of "provocations... we will make arrests and will deliver them to justice," he said.
Police sources told AFP that up to 5,000 officers could be mobilised in the operation.
The unusual measures come after the luxury shopping avenue was the scene last weekend of an unauthorised protest by demonstrators angry at high fuel taxes and government policies which turned violent, with makeshift roadblocks thrown up and set on fire. Other protests took place across the country.
READ ALSO:
- No fuel taxes or Macron's head: What do the 'yellow vests' actually want?
- 'Yellow vests': 80 percent of French people consider Macron's measures 'insufficient'
Photo: AFP
The protest movement is called the "yellow vests" after the high-visibility jackets the demonstrators wear -- a required safety garment that has to be carried in cars in France. It started two weeks ago, snowballing from grievances voiced in less-well-off rural and non-urban areas.
Much of the movement's anger is directed at President Emmanuel Macron, who is broadly unpopular and seen as arrogant as he tries to bring about economic reforms that so far have had no effect in boosting citizens' spending power.
Macron has vowed to forge on with his policies, saying they were "necessary" to improve France's pro-environmental shift -- though he insisted repeatedly he had heard the protesters' anger.
The president has sought to douse the anger by promising three months of nationwide talks on how best to transform France into a low-carbon economy without penalising the poor.
He also vowed to slow the rate of increase in fuel taxes if international oil prices rise too rapidly but only after a tax hike due in January.
On Friday, the government tried -- mostly in vain -- to talk to representatives of the "yellow vest" movement, named after the high-visibility jackets which motorists are required to carry in their cars.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe invited eight "representatives" to join him in his office. But only two turned up, and one walked out after being told he could not invite TV cameras in to broadcast the encounter live to the nation.
Castaner has sought to portray the "yellow vest" movement as directed by hard-right and hard-left political groups. In his TV interview, he spoke again of "the ultra-left and ultra-right" intent on violence.
But the protesters themselves reject any political affiliation and say their grievances are grassroot and genuine.
An online petition launched by one of their members in Paris calling for fuel taxes to be cut received over a million signatures by Thursday, making it one of top two most popular in France on the change.org website.
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