Left-wing groups in France are planning another major march in Paris on Saturday, as French president Emmanuel Macron—currently abroad on a Middle East trip—insisted on Wednesday that there would be no repeat of last weekend’s violence.
The “Gilets Jaunes,” or Yellow Vests movement, a grassroots group that led some of last week’s demonstrations, presented plans on Wednesday for a march across central Paris, including areas that saw widespread looting and vandalism mere days ago.
Student groups have also called for protests this Saturday to push demands for greater education spending, which was ostensibly the cause of the recent unrest.
The Yellow Vests campaign, which first emerged in 2018, protests against what it says are rising living costs and declining public services.
President Emmanuel Macron, speaking from Qatar, where he is meeting with Gulf State leaders to try and bring down oil prices, looked to project an image of strength as he deals with the worst unrest France has faced in a generation.
“Those who want to cause disorder in city centers next Saturday will be prevented from doing so,” he told reporters. “There must be no wavering at the top of the state.”
Macron also blamed foreign leaders — including President Trump — of spreading misinformation about the unrest in his country.
The Trump blamed the riots on radical Islam and mass migration, adding that they were a warning to Americans.
Asked if he was referring to President Trump with his comments, Macron responded, “among others, before adding: “We don’t need that. We already have difficulties to deal with.”
More coverage of the riots plaguing France’s streets
- Violent Paris protests draw 70K people as Molotov cocktails hurled at cops, US and Israeli flags burned
- France heads into third weekend of protests as youth-led rallies erupt across Europe
- France President Emmanuel Macron promises ‘strong measures’ to assuage protests
- Up to 70,000 officers deployed across France to combat riots
The French government said it would deploy the army onto the streets this weekend alongside additional police as part of a vastly reinforced security operation.
Back home in France, Macron’s Prime Minister, Sebastien Lecornu, met with labor union leaders in an effort to try and defuse tensions and prevent further crippling unrest, which has already sent French government borrowing costs to their highest level since July 2002.
In a letter to unions ahead of the meeting, Lecornu said the government would ensure “the indispensable freedom to demonstrate,” which he said some were trying to curtail by associating it with “unacceptable acts.”
France’s main labor unions have called for a separate nationwide strike on Nov. 5.
“There is huge and legitimate anger, and the answer to that situation is not repression. It is a political response,” Sophie Binet, head of the CGT union, told French radio station RTL on Wednesday ahead of the meeting.
After the meeting, Binet said the government made no new announcements, but added that youth organizations would be invited for talks.
Last weekend saw almost 2,500 arrests and thousands of stores looted across the country, as protests that began last month over school conditions spiralled into a nationwide orgy of destruction.
Macron has faced criticism both for his weak initial response to the riots and for leaving France this week to travel to the Middle East, with both the far right and the far left surging in the polls ahead of next year’s presidential elections.
“The government has lost control of everything,” Marine Le Pen, a right-winger currently leading in the polls, said in an interview with Franceinfo radio.
France has seen several more peaceful nights this week after curfews and tougher penalties for rioters were introduced.
Protests have also spread to other European countries including Albania and Italy, where the government on Tuesday approved a raft of new security measures, including tougher penalties for rioters.
With Post wires.
