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THOUSANDS OF POLICE have been out on the streets of Paris and other French cities today as the government faces intense pressure to avoid a repeat of the rioting that was seen during last week’s ‘yellow vest’ protests.
Hundreds of demonstrators began marching shortly after midday in Paris for the 19th consecutive week of the yellow vest protests.
Authorities have banned demonstrations in a large area in the west of the city, including the Champs-Elysées, after last weeks rioting.
More than 100 businesses were damaged last week weekend in Paris, including dozens of luxury shops and restaurants on the Champs-Elysées.
Today, dozens of police vehicles, including armoured trucks and water cannons, encircled the Arc de Triomphe at the top of the avenue, while officers patrolled in front of boarded-up shop fronts.
More than 40,000 people have taken to the streets of France for the protests today, 5,000 of them in the capital, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said.
Over 50 people had been detained in Paris, while 29 were given fines for attending unauthorised protests, which the government this week hiked from €38 to €135.
Protest bans were also in effect in the centres of Toulouse, Bordeaux, Dijon, Rennes and the southern city of Nice.
Clashes broke out in some other cities, including Nantes and Montpellier, though the Paris march was largely peaceful.
A 75-year-old woman was seriously injured in Nice when she fell and hit her head during a police charge.
Government criticism
French President Emmanuel Macron is under pressure to avoid a repeat of last week’s events.
The government has re-deployed soldiers from its Sentinelle anti-terror force to guard public buildings, freeing up the 6,000 deployed police in Paris to tackle any flare-ups of violence.
There was no sign of the soldiers in much of central Paris today. However, the move has drawn fierce criticism from opposition parties, who have accused the government of playing with fire.
Macron’s government also came in for severe criticism over its handling of last week’s protests.
The Paris police chief has since been fired over his handling of the violence.
The protests began in rural France on November 17 over fuel tax increases and quickly ballooned into a full-scale anti-government rebellion.
In a Facebook video this week, Maxime Nicolle one of the movement’s figureheads, explained the periodic rioting in Paris and other cities as the result of “40 years of being beaten psychologically and financially” by successive governments.
Includes reporting by © AFP 2019
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Now thats how you bring about change, 19th weekend in a row!!!!
@SFNutters: macron has pulled back on lots of stuff, fellas like you protest from the couch!
@MK76: how would you do it so, write a strong letter???
I was out protesting today in my town, in my gilet jaune, change is coming, stay cosy on your couch !
@MK76: except it would be in french, good man yourself and thanks for the support!
@tooler doogan: they don’t protest anymore… They destroy
@Andre le Flohic: unfortunatley some do Andre
@tooler doogan: You bring about change through utter mayhem alright, but most of the change the yellow vests have achieved has been changing the lives of poor people for the worse.
If you wake up on Sunday morning with your car graffiti’d and the windows smashed in, for no apparent reason, as many French have (I’ve seen this happen), and you’re telling me this is some sort of positive movement?
Thugs.
@tooler doogan: did you burn and loot anything, because the French are giving those vests that tag!
@MK76: pity for what? No need, i have a good quality of life here, just protesting to keep it, i play no important role in my town!
@GerryCummins: i didnt gerry no, done my protest and went home!
@tooler doogan: You must be very bored in France spending your evening on the couch commenting on an Irish news website. It would be like me going to the comments section of a French news website to discuss something that happened in Dublin, bizarre.
@Orla Smith: wife is irish, not on my couch but on my patio having a late dinner!
@tooler doogan: Then talk to your wife, rather than posting your life story on line. Oh and take off the hi-viz, unless your going to aggressively tear into the washing up.
@MK76: good man yourself, your good craic in fairness!
@tooler doogan: People standing up their rights and not taking the constant cuts to their society and their income. Go on the French!
@tooler doogan: what have they changed?
@Nial D: ah Nial you just come on to call others naughty names, are you keeping well in yourself anyway?
3,000 ‘protestors’ out of a population of 2.1 million in Paris! What a joke of a movement.
@Orla Smith: 3000 lol , your figures as usual way off
@Orla Smith: You must have been the RTE mathematician reporting the water protest numbers
@Derek Richardson: you know where sean spicer got his figure now!
@tooler doogan: Not my figures, the police figures, from Paris, where you are not located.
@Orla Smith: im not in paris no
@Orla Smith: 1 million remain protesters out of 17million who voted to leave European Union what a joke of a movement that is also
@Damien Barton: Oh dear, I’m almost embarrassed for you that you posted that on a publicly viewable forum! I recommend getting your Fisher Price abacus out.
@Orla Smith: at least they unite and dont let their government take the piss out of them
@Orla Smith: oh your so clever and wise wish I was like u
@Damien Barton: *you’re / *I / *you
@Orla Smith: not really your as thick as s**t ha ha
@Damien Barton: reeeetard
@Damien Barton: *you’re
@Orla Smith: yes thick as s**t understand now? ha ha ha
@Nial D: oh I’m so upset now how will I ever get over this hateful comment
it’s a coming / pay2protest
@Kieran Cronin: Go on the French! Standing up against cuts to their society and tax increases. Fair play to the French!
My pee pee is tiny.
I hate myself.
@Orla Smith: so does a lot of other people ha ha
@Damien Barton: you created that 2nd account. You’re beyond help.
@Nial D: what ever you think yourself mate ha ha
It’s the children I feel sorry for…..
have your say