Calls mounted on Sunday for President Emmanuel Macron to bring an end to the “yellow vest” crisis gripping France as authorities in Paris and elsewhere counted the cost of another day of violent protests and looting.
Authorities said the anti-Macron riots in Paris had been less violent than a week ago, with fewer injured – but the physical damage was far worse as the protests were spread out across the capital.
Burnt-out cars dotted the streets in several neighborhoods on Sunday as cleaners swept up broken glass from smashed shop windows and bus stops.
“There was much more dispersion, so many more places were affected,” Paris deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire told France Inter radio.
The southwestern city of Bordeaux was also badly hit by rioting during a fourth successive weekend of nationwide “yellow vest” protests.
What began as demonstrations against fuel-tax hikes have ballooned into a mass movement over rising living costs and accusations that Macron, a former banker, looks out only for the rich.
Finance minister Bruno le Maire said the unrest was creating a “catastrophe” for the French economy, with nationwide roadblocks playing havoc with the traffic and putting off tourists from visiting Paris.
Parts of the city were in lockdown on Saturday, with stores shut to avoid looting along with museums and monuments, including the Eiffel Tower. Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux vowed that Macron’s centrist administration would find solutions that took into account protesters’ various grievances.
Overwhelmingly made up of people from rural and smalltown France, the movement nonetheless includes protesters of various political stripes whose goals range from lower taxes to Macron’s resignation.
“We need to find solutions that take account of each person’s reality,” Griveaux told Europe 1 radio.
“It is anger that is difficult to understand from an office in Paris,” he acknowledged.
The protests have shown little sign of easing since they began on November 17.
The interior ministry said 136,000 people had taken part nationwide in Saturday’s protests, which turned violent in several other cities including Marseille and Toulouse.
In Paris, about 10,000 “yellow vests” flocked to the Champs-Elysees and other areas – 2,000 more than joined the action last week, as many headed in from the provinces for the first time.
Nationwide, more than 1,700 people were detained – more than 1,000 of them in Paris as police vowed “zero tolerance” for anarchists, far-right supporters and others seeking to cause trouble.
Thibault de Montbrial, head of security think tankCRSI, tweeted that authorities had managed to contain the hooligans who have repeatedly hijacked the protests to go on a looting and rioting spree.
But he added: “The state cannot mobilise forces every Saturday, and neither can shopkeepers barricade themselves in faced with violence which is not diminishing.
“This is a decisive political moment.”
Macron is expected to address the demonstrations in a speech in the coming days.
The crisis facing a leader who had been hailed internationally as a youthful defender of liberal values is being closely watched abroad.
Spain’s El Pais newspaper said it was the first time the 40year-old was “hesitating, giving the impression that he does not know what to do”.
And the French government urged US President Donald Trump on Sunday not to interfere in French politics after he posted tweets about the protests and attacked the Paris climate agreement.
“We do not take domestic American politics into account and we want that to be reciprocated,” foreign minister JeanYves le Drian said.
“I say this to Donald Trump and the French president says it too: leave our nation be.”
Trump had on Saturday posted two tweets referring to the protests.
“Very sad day & night in Paris. Maybe it’s time to end the ridiculous and extremely expensive Paris Agreement and return money back to the people in the form of lower taxes?” he suggested.
Trump posted earlier: “People do not want to pay large sums of money, much to thirdworld countries (that are questionably run), to maybe protect the environment.”