Yellow vest movement: French Govt offer talks after protests go violent

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Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the time had come for a dialogue “to knit our national unity back together.” Macron, he added, would address the protests and their grievances next week.

 

Agencies / Paris

Police fire tear gas on protesters in Paris as a fourth weekend of protests against increase of fuel tax turned violent.

Some 125,000 people took to the streets across the country, officials said, with around 10,000 gathering in Paris.

Protests in several areas of Paris saw police use tear gas and water cannons against demonstrators. Some protesters set fire to cars and smashed windows.

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said 1,385 people had been arrested.

 

Nevertheless, a beefed up police presence appears to have prevented the widespread violence that left more than 280 police officers injured during last weekend’s rallies.

The yellow vest movement opposed fuel tax rises but Government sources say it has been hijacked by ultra-violent protesters. Last week, hundreds of people were arrested and scores injured in violence in Paris, some of the worst street clashes in the French capital for decades.

Meanwhile, the French government has said, it is scrapping the unpopular fuel tax increases in its budget and has frozen electricity and gas prices for 2019.

Speaking after the protests had ended, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the time had come for a dialogue “to knit our national unity back together.” Macron, he added, would address the protests and their grievances next week.

Belgium and the Netherlands also witnessed smaller yellow vest protests on Saturday, with police in Brussels arresting some 400 people during a march through the city center.

Trump’s call

US President Donald Trump said the protests in Paris were “very sad” and called on the French government to cancel a 2015 international agreement to tackle climate change.

“Maybe it’s time to end the ridiculous and extremely expensive Paris Agreement and return money back to the people in the form of lower taxes?” he wrote on Twitter.

None of the yellow vest protesters have said they are demonstrating against the 2015 deal.