Yellow Vests Gather Across France for Ninth Weekend of Protests

(Bloomberg) -- France’s Yellow Vest protesters gathered Saturday in Paris and towns across the country in an effort to reinvigorate the movement as turnouts and public support wane.

The ninth weekend of demonstrations comes days before President Emmanuel Macron launches a three-month national debate intended to dispel the anger exposed by the recent violent protests, without derailing the reforms he insists France needs.

Even if turnout at recent Saturday protests has declined, violent clashes have continued. Visiting the western French city of Rouen early Saturday, junior Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said police would have zero tolerance.

“If there are excesses here, or anywhere in France, we will have an extremely firm response,” Nunez said in a message on Twitter.

Paris Police Prefect Michel Delpuech told CNews Friday that he expected the number of protesters to increase after a lull over the holidays, but not to swell to the crowds seen in November, when they numbered in the hundred of thousands. He said he also expected the remaining protesters to be particularly radicalized and violent.

Police Searches

The government is mobilizing 80,000 officers nationwide and 5,000 in the capital. Various streets in central Paris near government buildings will be closed off, and police searched people on roads and trains heading to the capital.

On Saturday, television showed protesters in yellow vests marching peacefully on a route running east-west through the center of Paris, starting at the French Finance Ministry and ending at the Arc de Triomphe, at the top of the Champs-Elysees.

Earlier in the day, emergency services rushed to an explosion near the center of Paris. Two firefighters were killed and nearly fifty people were injured in an incident authorities said was likely accidental.

Following the call of social media accounts used by the Yellow Vests, some protesters avoided Paris and headed to the central city of Bourges, expecting fewer police. Local authorities have banned protests in the center of the city, known for its Gothic cathedral. There were few arrests, but French television showed some clashes between protesters and police.

Cleaner Energy

Total SA’s chief executive, Patrick Pouyanne, said in an interview with French daily Le Figaro that the protests show Macron’s government moved too quickly with efforts to transition to cleaner energy.

The continued protests and the planned national debate come as a poll shows the French are increasingly turning away from their leaders. Democracy in France isn’t working well for 70 percent of respondents in an annual Opinionway poll, up 9 percentage points from a year ago. When asked what they feel about politics, 37 percent said “distrust” and 32 percent said “disgust.” Only 2 percent of those polled answered “respect.”

Macron promised a “Great National Debate” on Nov. 27 as he canceled some tax increases and raised some welfare payments in an effort to subdue the Yellow-Vest movement, which began to protest higher gasoline taxes before morphing into a general clamor about the cost of living and the state of democracy in France.

National Debate

Macron’s overtures and the violence that accompanied many of protests has eaten away at the once overwhelming public support for the Yellow Vests. An Elabe poll released Thursday put support for the movement at 60 percent, down 10 points from a month ago, a decline confirmed in other polls.

The protests have rattled the French economy, with retailers reporting steep falls in December sales and the national tourism promotion board saying tourist arrivals fell by between 5 and 10 percent. Consumer confidence has slumped to a four-year low and the government estimates that the disruption in December stripped around 0.1 percentage points off fourth-quarter economic growth.

Letter and Kit

Macron will launch the public debates next week, first with an online “letter to the French,” and then with a Jan. 15 visit to a small town west of Paris, where he’ll meet local mayors, who are expected to play a major role in running the consultations.

The government will publish a “kit” on how to organize the debates, which in theory can be done by anyone. The government has listed four themes: ecological transition, public finances, democracy, and the state’s organization, with ministers sending conflicting signals about whether other issues can be discussed. The debates will be the foundation for new measures and draft laws introduced as early as April, with the possibility of a referendum to approve the most far-reaching demands.

An Odoxa poll released Thursday said 32 percent of the French plan to take part but only 29 percent thought it would prove useful.

The process comes at a crucial moment in Macron’s five-year term, which began with a flurry of unpopular overhauls of labor laws and taxes, and which he wants to pursue with changes to the retirement and unemployment insurance. The Yellow Vest protests have tested his resolve to keep up the pace of reform and already forced him into U-turns on tax policies that will prove costly for public finances.

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