25 detained before Paris protests as police deploy in force

At least 25 people have been arrested in French capital before a planned demonstration of Yellow Vest protesters on Saturday, according to local broadcaster France Info.

Yellow Vest protests, which started as a reaction to fuel tax hikes and evolved into a raid against French President Emmanuel Macron, will continue on Saturday despite the government’s call to halt it.

On Thursday, Maxime Nicolle, one of the prominent figures of the Yellow Vest movement, said they will hold protests despite the government’s calls to stop after Strasbourg shooting.

The protesters will gather on Champs-Elysees and Opera Square, while around 8,000 will be on duty together with 14 armored vehicles to ensure security in Paris.

Around 89,000 police officers are deployed across the country.

While stores and restaurants on the iconic street are closed, many metro lines will be out of service due to the protests.

Since Nov. 17, thousands of protesters wearing bright yellow vests — dubbed the Yellow Vests — have been gathering in major French cities, including the capital Paris, to protest Macron’s controversial fuel tax hikes and the deteriorating economic situation.

The “yellow vest” movement, which takes its name from the fluorescent safety vests French motorists must all have in their vehicles, emerged in mid-November as a protest against fuel tax increases. It soon morphed into an expression of rage about the high cost of living in France and a sense that President Emanuel Macron’s government is detached from the everyday struggles of workers.

“Respect my existence or expect my resistance,” read one banner held aloft by some of the thousands of protesters who began converging on the Champs-Elysees on Saturday morning.

“We’re here to represent all our friends and members of our family who can’t come to protest, or because they’re scared,” said Pierre Lamy, a 27-year-old industrial worker wearing a yellow vest and with a French flag draped over his shoulders as he walked to the protest with three friends.

He said the protests had long stopped being about the fuel tax and had turned into a movement for economic justice.

“Everything’s coming up now,” Lamy said. “We’re being bled dry.”

On Friday, Macron called for calm during the demonstrations, and the French government reiterated the call online for demonstrators to remain peaceful.

“Protesting is a right. So let’s know how to exercise it,” the government tweeted from its official account, with a 34-second video which begins with images of historic French protests and recent footage of “yellow vest” protesters rallying peacefully before turning to violence.

“Protesting is not smashing. Protesting is not smashing our heritage. Protesting is not smashing our businesses. … Protesting is not smashing our republic,” the video says.

Macron acknowledged in a speech earlier this week that he is partially responsible for the anger displayed during the protests, and has announced measures aimed at improving workers’ spending power. But he has so far refused to reinstate a wealth tax that was lifted to spur investment in France.

“I don’t think our democracy can accept to function with a dialogue that is carried out only with the occupation of the public domain, only by elements of violence,” Macron said Friday.

But on the streets of Paris on Saturday, some protesters were saying the president still didn’t understand them.

“I think that Macron isn’t in touch with what the yellow vests want. I think the yellow vests need to continue speaking out and the problem is that in the countryside,” said Julie Verrier, a protester from Picardie in Normandy in northern France who had been participating in protests there for the past three weeks and had travelled to Paris for Saturday’s demonstration.

“Local city halls are closed so we can’t go there to express and write our complaints and our wishes,” she said. “So coming here is the only way we have to say that French people need to be heard.”

During demonstrations, at least four people have been killed and more than a thousand others wounded.

The French President Macron said that taxes on overtime pay would be abolished as of next year and announced social security tax cuts for pensioners earning less than €2,000.

However, the protesters have found President Macron’s statement “insufficient.”