Scenes of barricaded and water cannon being used against demonstrators in central Paris has unnerved France after the country experienced some of the worst street violence in the tourist-oriented districts of the capital since the iconic 1968 anti-Capitalist, leftist protests left much of Paris looking like a war zone.
Known as the ” Yellow Vest Movement”, the demonstrations started out to reaction fuel taxes attached to President Emmanuel Macron‘s wide-ranging green policy. Protesters want the taxes scrapped as they have cut into the middle and working classes’ shrinking purchasing power.
The Yellow Vests, who may be backed by both the far-left and far-right – each of whom have a deeply antagonistic view of Macron and his centrist politics – gathered for an unauthorised march in Paris on November 24. The protest gathered more than 100,000 people and turned violent after the crowd made their way to the famed Champs-Élysées were they came into conflict with Parisian police lines.
At least 24 people were injured and more than 100 arrests were made after the melee. Shopkeepers had windows smashed and their buildings tagged with graffiti after the demonstration by the gilets jaunes (Yellow Vests) grew increasingly more belligerent.
Officials said it was too early to establish the cost of the damage, but one estimated it could be up to €1.5 million
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner blamed “seditious” and “ultra-right” hooligans for hijacking the gilets jaunes protest and sparking violence, a sentiment that Paris’ Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire reiterated, “We are well aware that it’s a very small minority who for several years have attached themselves to protests each time in order to smash everything up.”
Much larger protests had broken out earlier in November, in which two people were killed in the clashes. The French authorities have reported that the Yellow Vests, which have no formal leadership structure or a known political affiliation, have called for more mass protests on December 1 as a response to the street battles that broke out on November 24.
France’s taxes represent 45% of the country’s GDP, making it one of the most highly taxed country’s in Europe. The tax burden grew by €25 billion every year between 2002 and 2017.
SOURCE
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/yellow-vest-protest-turns-violent-and-rocks-an-unsuspecting-french-public/
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201811301070274770-protest-yellow-vest-brussels/
https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/11/breaking-yellow-vest-protests-spread-to-brussels-as-working-class-europeans-rise-up/#.XAFcULAXhgA.twitter
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