Macron protest: ‘Yellow Vest’ protestors take to the streets for TENTH weekend in a row
YELLOW vest demonstrators have descended on Paris in the thousands today for the tenth consecutive weekend of protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s government.
By ALAHNA KINDRED
Express.co.uk
Sat, Jan 19, 2019
About 5,000 protesters came out to the Champs Elysees and Invalides esplanade near the Assemblee Nationale lower house of parliament and the Eiffel Tower this morning. It is unclear exactly how many are protesting today, with initial reports suggesting it is in the thousands, but numbers are expected to swell. Some of the protesters shouted: “Macron, resign!”
Protests began mid-November over higher fuel taxes, which Mr Macron eventually caved and scrapped the proposal.
The yellow vest protests have their name because of the high-visibility jackets all French motorists must carry in their cars in case of an emergency.
Demonstrations have now evolved into a broader protest against the government.
Some had also made coffin-type objects to denote the deaths of 10 people so far during the protests, mainly due to accidents when demonstrators blocked roads.
December saw some of the most violent protests in decades as rioters torched cars, destroyed shops and businesses and vandalised monuments in the French capital.
Protests this month have been quieter, but a images of a former French boxing champion punching and kick police the month during a demonstration have horrified much of the country.
Macron has launched a series of national debates to restore his standing and to simmer public discontent.
However, he still plans to go ahead with his controversial finance reform.
The French centrist promised to increase the minimum wage, cut taxes for cash-poor pensioners and tax-free overtime pay in order to quell the worst crisis of his presidency.
The court’s president Didier Migaud told Prime Minister Edouard Philippe: “We are aware of the difficult choices that the government has had to make and the resulting trade-offs.
“But it is still possible to meet the expectations [of the population] without abandoning fiscal consolidation efforts.”
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