PARIS: One protester was killed and 47 other people were injured on Saturday at roadblocks set up around France by citizens angry at rising fuel taxes, posing a new challenge to embattled President Emmanuel Macron.
Police officers lobbed tear gas canisters at demonstrators on the famed Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris as groups tried to make their way to the presidential Elysee Palace. Later, hundreds of protesters entered the bottom of the street dotted with luxury shops where the palace is located and where Macron lives.
They were seen on BFMTV talking with riot police when the officers suddenly raised their shields and pushed the group back.
French Interior Ministry officials estimated at midday that about 125,000 protesters were involved in some 2,000 demonstrations around the country, many of them spontaneous.
The protester who died, a 63-year-old woman, was killed when a driver caught in traffic accelerated in a panic at Pont-de-Beauvoisin, near Chambery, according to Louis Laugier, the prefect, or top state official, in the eastern Savoie region.
According to various French media reports, others reportedly knocked on her car as she tried to take her daughter to a hospital. An investigation was opened.
Three people were seriously injured and 44 others were slightly injured, ministry officials said. Two dozen people were detained and 17 held for questioning, the Interior Ministry reported.
Protesters, wearing yellow safety vests and dubbing themselves the “yellow jackets,” pledged to target tollbooths, roundabouts and the bypass that ring Paris. The fluorescent yellow vests donned by the protesters must be kept in the vehicles of all French drivers in case of car troubles.
The ministry said security forces used tear gas in several places besides the Champs-Elysees to unblock major routes, including firing about 30 canisters at the entrance to the Mont Blanc tunnel.
The nationwide protest was unusual in its grassroots origins. It arose from within the citizenry and backed neither by unions nor politicians, although some took part in a clear bid for supporters.
The amateur nature of the protests, often spontaneous and therefore illegal, made it tricky for police, who had orders to use dialogue instead of force but to stop protesters from completely blocking major routes.
The situation on the Champs-Elysees, for instance, was confusing, with the protest producing a party atmosphere at some points and angry confrontations at others.
Police fired tear gas when a group moved into a street near the presidential palace. Hundreds of protesters took over the Place de la Concorde at the bottom of the avenue, shouting “Macron resign” as police looked on.
Tensions rose when a group of protesters moved in front of the US Embassy, which is located on a corner of the Place.
Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2018
