France considers state of emergency after riots tear parts of Paris apart – By Alix Culbertson (news.sky.com) / Dec 2 2018
More than 400 people are arrested in Paris as 133 people, including 23 police officers, are injured during fuel tax riots.
France is considering imposing a state of emergency as hundreds of people were arrested during the country’s worst riots in 50 years.
Police in Paris said 23 officers are among 133 people who have been injured since violence flared on Saturday afternoon, tearing parts of the capital apart.
Out of the 412 arrested, 378 are in police custody, while the interior minister Christophe Castaner said about 3,000 people were suspected of having taken part in the Paris violence which marks the worst unrest the capital has seen since 1968.
Image:Protesters face riot police in Paris on 1 December
Across France 75,000 people were estimated to have engaged in protests on Saturday, marking the third weekend in a row of protests.
One person died on Sunday morning near Arles, in the south of France, after an accident at a roadblock created by protesters, the local prosecutor said.
Activists dressed in hi-vis jackets torched cars, smashed windows, looted stores and vandalised the Arc de Triomphe as thousands took part in a protest against rising fuel taxes and President Emmanuel Macron’s liberal economic reforms.
Benjamin Griveaux, a government spokesman, said France will consider imposing a state of emergency to prevent further unrest, and is urging peaceful protesters to get around the negotiating table.
He told Europe 1 radio: “It is out of the question that each weekend becomes a meeting or ritual for violence.”
A government spokesman said it is open to dialogue but will not change course.
Mr Macron headed straight to the Arc de Triomphe, where city employees had scrubbed off the graffiti, at 11am local time on Sunday from the airport where he arrived from the Buenos Aires G20 summit.
He was booed as he arrived by passers-by.
The president, who has warned those responsible for the violence will pay for their actions, will then hold an emergency security meeting with his prime minister.The National Police Alliance called for a state of emergency, with the deputy national secretary Loic Travers accusing Paris police of failing to filter out “people with bad intentions” before they came to the protests.
Image: Emmanuel Macron (C) with Interior Minister Christophe Castaner (2ndR) and Paris police chief Michel Delpuech (R) arrive at the Arc de Triomphe
Image: Cleaners scrubbed off graffiti reading ‘the yellow vests will triumph’ from the Arc de Triomph before Mr Macron’s visit
Protesters have been wearing the yellow vests which French drivers must carry, prompting the protests to be called Gilets Jaunes – yellow vests.
The protests erupted out of nowhere on 17 November in reaction to rising fuel taxes, with social media playing a key role in enabling hundreds of people to quickly gather in cities across France. They quickly escalated as the protests began to also represent a growing dissatisfaction with diminishing living conditions due to other increasing taxes
Image: Roads leading to the famous Arc de Triomphe were closed
Image: The burnt-out shell of a building which was seen in flames the day before near the Arc de Triomphe
Politicians blamed far-left and far-right supporters of infiltrating the protests and turning them violent.
The Union of Restaurateurs and Caterers said the effect on the trade was “catastrophic”, saying 50% of tourists in Paris had cancelled their reservations or left the country early, with more and more cancelling elsewhere in France.
Image: France’s interior minister called the violence an ‘insult to the Republic’
Image: A vandalised car is seen the morning after protests turned violent
Groups of masked young men, some carrying metal bars and axes, were seen running through the streets.
Cars were set on fire and firefighters were seen putting out large fires inside buildings near the Arc de Triomphe as protesters filmed with their phones.
French journalist Hugo Clement was hit in the head by a projectile in Paris as he rode his scooter to a bar on Saturday.
https://twitter.com/Alex_Rosenfeld/status/1069021792461905922
His partner, Alexandra Rosenfeld, tweeted a picture of his face after his helmet visor was hit and shattered, then his phone was stolen after it fell to the ground.
She said he was not working at the time and protesters quickly treated him before he was taken to hospital and given seven stitches.
The violence prompted 19 Paris Metro stations to shut down while department stores, including the famous Galeries Lafayettes, closed early.
Benjamin Cauchy, a spokesman for Free Yellow Vests, said on Sunday that he wants a “constructive dialogue” with the government.
The protests were not contained to Paris, with yellow vest-clad protesters taking to streets across France.
They blocked off access to a terminal at Nice Airport, Marsaille experienced large crowds, more than 1,000 people were on Saint-Etienne’s streets in the Loire Valley, and seven people were injured during clashes in Bordeaux – with one losing several fingers after a pyrotechnic device exploded.
A total of 65,000 security forces were on duty across France, with Mr Castaner saying anybody breaking the law “will be very strongly sanctioned”.
Speaking at the G20 on Saturday evening Mr Macron said: “I will never accept violence.
“No cause justifies that authorities are attacked, that businesses are plundered, that passers-by or journalists are threatened or that the Arc de Triomphe is defiled.”
