September 12 was the meeting supposed to revive the movement.
This Saturday, the first demonstration of "yellow vests" since the end of confinement brought together around a thousand people in Paris, and a few hundred in several other cities of the country.
Read the file: "Reconciling the two France": the major discussions at Le Figaro
Born almost two years ago, on November 17, 2018, the anti-elite citizen movement and which fights for more tax and social justice, is seeking its second wind.
He had succeeded the first year in shaking France, between occupations of roundabouts and sometimes violent demonstrations.
A small mobilization
While the police expected between 4000 and 5000 people in Paris (for 2300 "participants" on the Facebook event), the first figures put forward about a thousand demonstrators, to which we must add a few hundred in other cities.
Read also: What has become of the leaders of the “yellow vests”?
“
The movement is dead, I say it clearly, but we are here because nothing to lose.
It's a bit of a last-ditch
”, confided Michael, a 43-year-old Parisian“ yellow vest ”to AFP.
In the center of Toulouse, several hundred "yellow vests" were present despite the ban on demonstrating for health reasons.
The police used tear gas, just like in Lyon where the demonstration was also prohibited.
In Colmar, between 100 and 150 demonstrators put a large yellow mask on the face of the Statue of Liberty using a ladder, a replica installed on a roundabout at the entrance to the city.
Strong police supervision
"
There can be no destruction, chaos on the Champs-Élysées
", had warned the prefect of police Didier Lallement during a press briefing early in the morning.
On the Champs-Élysées, where two demonstrations were banned by the police headquarters, a large police force was deployed and many traders had barricaded their windows.
This did not prevent some demonstrators from entering according to the images of an independent journalist.
Without giving overall figures on the numbers mobilized, the prefect referred to an “
appropriate
”, “
important
” device, notably with the deployment of 160 motorcyclists from the brigades for the repression of violent action (BRAV-M).
Didier Lallement had also confirmed the presence, as of this Saturday, of a "supervisor" for each bearer of LBD in order to help "
in the mastery and good use
" of this weapon, and the withdrawal of old hand grenades from de-encirclement (GMD) replaced by a new model, deemed less dangerous, in accordance with the announcements of the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin on Friday.
See also
- Demonstration of "yellow vests": the images of the police device
Some clashes in Paris
In the north-west of the capital, near Place Wagram, a gathering place, clashes erupted throughout the afternoon between demonstrators and the police.
See also
- "Yellow vests": tensions erupt between demonstrators and police in Paris
Garbage cans were set on fire, street furniture overturned and a car burnt, an AFP journalist noted.
For their part, the police fired tear gas canisters to disperse the demonstrators who left the route authorized by the prefecture.
At 6 p.m., more than 250 people had been arrested and according to the Paris prosecutor's office, and 154 were on guard.
Jean-Marie Bigard exfiltrated from the procession
Jean-Marie Bigard tried to rally the procession around 10 am before having to flee under the boos of the demonstrators.
This media support has dissociated itself this week from one of the figures of the movement, Jérôme Rodrigues, who had likened the police to "
a band of Nazis
".
Heckled, insulted, the comedian took refuge for a moment in a local restaurant explaining that it was a "
bad interpretation
".
“
For a while, people thought I was letting them go, which is wrong, that's all,
” he told reporters.
BFMTV headquarters invaded by protesters
About fifty demonstrators managed to enter the headquarters of the continuous news channel BFMTV.
With cries of “collaborators!”, They succeeded in overwhelming the security personnel.
Protesters blame the channel for being critical of the movement since its inception.
According to
Le Parisien
, citing Arthur Dreyfuss, managing director of Altice (the group that owns BFMTV), the incident only lasted about ten minutes, but some journalists were taken to task.
Management has already indicated that it will file a complaint.
To see also
- “Yellow vests”, the return?