(Staff articles from The NATIONAL SENTINEL & The SBS in December 2018.)
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| The Yellow Vests Will Triumph. |
As such, French authorities plan to deploy 8,000 police in Paris alone with another 80,000-plus riot police and gendarmes around the country, various reports have said. French intelligence services have reported to the Elysee Palace, the official residence of President Emannuel Macron, following “calls to kill” and “carry arms to attack” government officials, parliamentarians and police, according to Le Figaro.
“They are putschists. We are in a coup attempt,” said Le Figaro‘s sources. On Thursday, Yellow Vest leader Eric Drouet noted that “Saturday will be the final outcome. Saturday is the Elysee,” adding, “We all would like to go to the Elysee.” Le Figaro also reported that Saturday’s demonstrations may involve unprecedented levels of violence including “a hardcore radicalized” element from “both the extreme right and extreme left.”
In addition to the closure of the Eiffel Tower on Saturday, several French museums also announced that they would close. Macron has struggled to contain the protests and the outrage after announcing the hike in fuel taxes three weeks ago, even agreeing to delay them this week.
The taxes are part of France’s ‘contribution’ to the Paris Climate Accords signed in 2015 which would see $100 billion in wealth from participating (mostly Western) nations transferred to the third world, ostensibly to assist them in ‘greening’ their countries. For the record, this is the accord POTUS Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from in June 2017.
Despite Macron’s pledge to delay the tax hikes, Yellow Vest demonstrators don’t seem to be placated. The Yellow Vest movement has called on its followers to “stay on our course” over Facebook and gather for “The Act IV” on Saturday the 8th, in what will be the fourth week of protests.
Macron’s offer of a six-month delay and to place the tax only on ‘the wealthy’ isn’t playing well among a French electorate who have come to believe that the governing elites have completely lost touch with the people.
Paris burns as Macron vows never to accept violence
It is the third weekend 'yellow vest' protesters have taken to the streets to protest against rising fuel prices and Macron Government’s increasing accommodation of Muslim illegal immigrants.
At least 80 people have been injured and more than 180 arrested in central Paris after violent clashes between police and protesters. Police have fired tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons in battles with protesters around the Arc de Triomphe near the Champs-Elysees avenue.
Clashes were reported elsewhere across the city centre on Saturday, as well as in other towns across the country. The Galeries Lafayette and Printemps department stores in central Paris closed their doors amid the violence, two spokeswomen told Reuters, while firemen were seen putting out a blaze at a building near the Champs-Elysees.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted her "indignation" and "deep sadness", saying that violence is "not acceptable". French President Emmanuel Macron vowed never to accept violence, responding to the protests against him in Paris.
"I will never accept violence," Macron he told a news conference at a Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires amid the massive "yellow vest" demonstrations. "No cause justifies that authorities are attacked, that businesses are plundered, that passers-by or journalists are threatened or that the Arc du Triomphe is defiled," he said.
Police said they had arrested 183 people amid concerns that violent far-right and far-left groups were infiltrating the "gilets jaunes" (yellow vests) movement, a spontaneous grassroots rebellion against the struggle many French face to make ends meet.
For three weeks, protesters have blocked roads across the country, posing one of the largest and most sustained challenges French President Emmanuel Macron has faced in his 18-month-old presidency. At least 80 people, including 11 members of the security forces, have been injured in the capital, Paris police said. The skirmishes in Paris broke out early on Saturday, with rioters and peaceful protesters mixed together after authorities cordoned off the Champs-Elysees, forcing them into adjacent streets.
Demonstrators put up barricades in the surrounding areas, smashed some car windows and set alight dozens of vehicles, including a police car. Several hundred yellow vests, who have no leader and have largely organised themselves online, sat down around the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe, singing La Marseillaise, France's national anthem, and chanting, "Macron Resign!"
On the facade of the towering 19th-century arch, protesters scrawled in big black letters: "The yellow vests will triumph". The yellow vests, who enjoy widespread public support, get their name from the high-visibility jackets all motorists in France must carry in their vehicles.
