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Thibault Camus AP/PA Images

Eiffel Tower among landmarks to close as Paris braced for fresh violence this weekend

The protests have escalated into the biggest crisis of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency.

THE EIFFEL TOWER, the Louvre museum and scores of shops on the Champs-Elysees are set to close as authorities warned today of fresh violence this weekend during protests which have ballooned into the biggest crisis of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency.

The government is scrambling to stave off another Saturday of burned cars and running street battles with police by “yellow vest” protesters furious over rising costs of living they blame on high taxes.

An interior ministry official told AFP that authorities were bracing for “significant violence” on Saturday, based on indications that protesters on both the far right and far left are planning to converge on the capital.

Officials fear they could be joined by hooligans set on rioting and looting, as is widely thought to have been the case last weekend.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said 8,000 police would be deployed in Paris alongside a dozen armoured vehicles for crowd control as part of “exceptional” measures to contain the risk of violence.

He also reiterated his appeal for calm, saying in a prime-time TV interview that the government was ready to consider “any measure which would allow us to boost spending power”.

Across the country some 89,000 police will be mobilised, up from 65,000 last weekend, when the country was rocked by daylong scenes of urban unrest in Paris.

But so far the “yellow vest” movement shows no signs of losing steam, despite the government’s rollback of planned fuel tax hikes for January, one of the protesters’ core demands.

France Gas Price Protests Thibault CamusAP / PA Images Thibault CamusAP / PA Images / PA Images

Shops along the Champs-Elysees as well as popular shopping streets near the iconic avenue were told to keep their doors closed, protect exposed windows and remove any outdoor furniture including tables and chairs, according to the police notices seen by AFP.

The move is likely to cost businesses thousands of euros in lost revenue as tourists and locals alike stay clear during a second holiday weekend in a row.

Both the Garnier and Bastille opera houses have cancelled performances scheduled for Saturday, and the doors of major museums will remain shut.

A Paris Saint-Germain football game against Montpellier scheduled for Saturday has also been postponed after a request by Paris police, and some schools near the Champs-Elysees have called off Saturday classes.

Student protests

The “yellow vest” protests began on November 17 in opposition to rising fuel taxes, but they have since expanded into a broad challenge to Macron’s pro-business agenda and style of governing.

The protesters, mainly from small-town and rural France, have broad public support, with an opinion poll this week showing 72 percent backed the demonstrations despite last weekend’s violence.

The “yellow vests” have also spurred other protests, in particular students demanding an end to testing overhauls and stricter university entrance requirements.

Nearly 280 high schools were disrupted, 45 of which were blocked, in protests across France today, with more than 700 students detained by police, an interior ministry source told AFP.

Dozens of people wearing face masks threw Molotov cocktails, torched rubbish bins and clashed with police outside schools in several cities.

“We’re the ones who are going to eventually have to pay higher fuel prices,” said Ines, one of around 150 high school students demonstrating in the southern Paris suburb of Cachan.

Farmers have also called for demonstrations every day next week, while two truck driver unions plan an indefinite sympathy strike from Sunday night.

Meanwhile yellow-vest blockades at fuel depots have caused shortages in Brittany, Normandy, and southeast regions of France.

‘Brink of insurrection’

Political leaders from across the spectrum have appealed for calm, after four people died in accidents during protests and hundreds have been injured.

Today, a yellow-vest representative, Benjamin Cauchy, called on Macron to meet a delegation of protesters tomorrow to help defuse a situation that he said had brought the country “to the brink of insurrection and civil war”.

“We’re asking him to meet us to negotiate on spending power, which is what underpins all this anger,” Cauchy told AFP.

Macron, whose approval ratings are down to just 23 percent, has not commented publicly since Saturday on the deepest crisis of his presidency so far.

But members of his government have signalled they are ready to make further concessions to avoid new violence after the U-turn on fuel tax increases.

But Macron’s office said he told ministers he would stick to his decision to cut a “fortune tax” on high-earners, which the former investment banker abolished last year.

Restoring the wealth tax has become one of the core demands of the “yellow vests,” alongside the fuel tax rollback and an increase in the minimum wage.

© AFP 2018 

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    Mute John Doyle
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    Dec 6th 2018, 10:41 PM

    The frenchies sure do know how to protest

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    Mute James Gorman #FBPE
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    Dec 6th 2018, 10:50 PM

    @John Doyle: if they were half as good to work..

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    Mute Pádraig Debhál
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    Dec 6th 2018, 11:55 PM

    @John Doyle: that’s not protesting. It’s just sheer mindless thuggery by s(umbags. Since when did vandelism, arson, looting and assault equal protesting.

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    Mute tooler doogan
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    Dec 7th 2018, 12:14 AM

    @Pádraig Debhál: thats how the french protest, gets results everytime

    113
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    Mute GerryCummins
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    Dec 7th 2018, 12:14 AM

    @Pádraig Debhál: some geniuses on here think it’s the way to go! Who do they think pays for the clean up? Fools we are breeding!

    46
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    Mute tooler doogan
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    Dec 7th 2018, 12:17 AM

    @GerryCummins: only way to go at this stage, how much do you think the clean up will be 10 billion or something?

    63
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    Mute Paddy Kavanagh
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    Dec 7th 2018, 12:36 AM

    @James Gorman #FBPE: agree, they wouldnt lift their hand to wipe their a**e

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    Mute Donal Desmond
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    Dec 7th 2018, 2:17 AM

    @Pádraig Debhál: No not thuggery or vandalism… A protest against a government much like our own who have only one object in mind . Tax after Tax, privatisation, the destruction of unions. Governments are elected to preserve the interests of it’s citizens Not for the profits of business corporations.

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    Mute Charles Coughlan
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    Dec 7th 2018, 4:53 AM

    @John Doyle: Absolutely, if that was Ireland the government would bring out the riot squad.

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    Mute Chris Healy
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    Dec 7th 2018, 6:17 AM

    @John Doyle: was thinking the same. If this was any other country such a riot would only be in response to some massive issue but in France it could be anything from bringing in a draft to a 5 cent increase on bus fares.

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    Mute John Doyle
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    Dec 7th 2018, 7:41 AM

    @Pádraig Debhál: OK you go out with your 2 mates and a Banner and see if the government pays any attention to you. There will always be thugs who take advantage of big protests. Again hats off to the French and their spirit when it comes to protesting and their unions support each other

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    Mute Pádraig Debhál
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    Dec 7th 2018, 8:18 AM

    @Seán Domhnall O’Sullivan: Good man Sean. Did it take you long to come up with that counter argument?

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    Mute Pádraig Debhál
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    Dec 7th 2018, 8:30 AM

    @Donal Desmond: Donal, if the Irish public disapproved fundamentally with a government they would elect a different one as they have often done. After all we live in a democracy, we are not stuck with the same government. Spraying graffiti over the GPO and looting shops in Henry Street is not protest IMHO.

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    Mute Ryan
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    Dec 7th 2018, 8:38 AM

    @Pádraig Debhál: since all of time

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    Mute Pádraig Debhál
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    Dec 7th 2018, 11:41 AM

    @John Doyle: IMO John, banners, chanting and marching etc are acceptable peaceful protest. Whether the government listens or not can be dealt with at the ballot box.

    For example in an equivalent Irish context, burning down the GPO, spraying graffiti on Jim Larkin’s monument, terrorising ordinary people going to work, burning their cars, firing missiles at grannies, looting Arnotts etc would be beyond contempt, have zero justification and I am confident zero support among ordinary Irish people.

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    Mute joe
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    Dec 7th 2018, 12:37 PM

    @Charles Coughlan: eh did you not see the riots in France. Tear gas being used left right and centre! Their police know how to handle themselves!

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    Mute Fergus Robson
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    Dec 7th 2018, 1:39 PM

    @James Gorman #FBPE: you do realise that French workers are amongst the most productive in the EU, more so than German or English. And you with your fbpe and you no notion about europe yet happy to peddle tired tropes… Ridiculous

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    Mute Danny Gibson
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    Dec 6th 2018, 10:41 PM

    Them boys know how to do it!

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    Mute Milk The Drones
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    Dec 6th 2018, 10:52 PM

    @Danny Gibson:
    Our chancer politicians wouldn’t last 5 minutes in France, can you imagine? Be like the the Benny Hill show with a load yellow vests chasing them about the place.

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    Mute GerryCummins
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    Dec 7th 2018, 12:12 AM

    @Danny Gibson: yeah burn private cars and property and loot shops! Wow! Brilliant, who do you think pays for the clean up? Genius!

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    Mute PΛÐÐY ЯOOПΣY
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    Dec 7th 2018, 12:21 AM

    @GerryCummins: Your not wrong, but trodden sterilized correct avenues to change take to long, lose momentum and often come out with nothing. Many a peaceful movement comes to a drawn out bureaucratic death.

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    Mute Mark Johnson
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    Dec 7th 2018, 6:26 AM

    Our police force wouldnt last 1 minute there ..

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    Mute raymond grehan
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    Dec 6th 2018, 10:46 PM

    Trump’s tweet to Macron “I am glad that my friend @EmmanuelMacron and the protestors in Paris have agreed with the conclusion I reached two years ago. The Paris Agreement is fatally flawed because it raises the price of energy for responsible countries while whitewashing some of the worst polluters….”
    Touche.

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    Mute Sean Conway
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    Dec 7th 2018, 12:38 PM

    @raymond grehan: Another ‘paris commune. and let it spread.

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    Mute Daniel Donovan
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    Dec 6th 2018, 10:59 PM

    We need real solutions to tackle climate change, instead the puppet heads of state increase taxes and hurt the working class. What about clean energy investment. Nuclear thorium? A trade agreement with Iceland for Geothermal Energy? What about tax credits for people that install solar harnessing systems in their homes or a decrease in road tax for those with electric cars? These are just some ideas off the top of my head.

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    Mute Niall Power
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    Dec 6th 2018, 11:21 PM

    @Daniel Donovan: how do you propose to get the Geothermal energy from Iceland to Europe??

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    Mute Daniel Donovan
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    Dec 7th 2018, 7:42 AM

    @Niall Power: There was plans for a pipeline to Scotland for Geothermal energy so I would go with the same route?

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    Mute John Brendan Mullen
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    Dec 6th 2018, 11:15 PM

    Such a pity the Irish have lost their thirst for justice equally and political accountability.

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    Mute John Brendan Mullen
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    Dec 6th 2018, 11:16 PM

    @John Brendan Mullen: equality.

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    Mute gunggh
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    Dec 7th 2018, 12:45 PM

    @John Brendan Mullen: ye smashing up your own city is a great way to show a thirst for justice equality and political accountability.

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Dec 7th 2018, 10:09 PM

    To be fair now, the gendarmes can tell the difference between the majority (protestors), and the troublemakers who are out to cause damage. It’s in the article.

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    Mute Colette Kearns
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    Dec 6th 2018, 11:38 PM

    It’s not just about the tax hikes in fuel, it’s about the decline in their health services, education, letting the wealthy get away with not paying proper taxes & generally austerity! Same problems most European countries have , due to the sycophantic governments & just pure greed! People are dying while the billionaires play “ Who’s got the biggest yachts “

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    Mute Kenneth Clohessy
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    Dec 7th 2018, 12:14 AM

    The journo forgets to mention that the protesters are also against his europihile policies & macron is shittin himself in case he’s ousted from government

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    Mute @mdmak33
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    Dec 6th 2018, 11:58 PM

    Sticking to his decision to abolish “fortune tax”says it all about who Macron represents.

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    Mute John Quill
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    Dec 6th 2018, 11:11 PM

    Macron: “let them drive Leafs”

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    Mute angryDuck
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    Dec 7th 2018, 12:03 AM

    Well done the French, meanwhile our government continues to aid in the financial rape of the 6am starting taxpayers of this country.
    https://www.thejournal.ie/ptsb-pepper-sale-4380329-Dec2018/
    On law for the rich, another for everyone else!
    I can’t wait to see the colour of Leo’s socks tomorrow night as Tubs brown noses.

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    Mute Seán Domhnall O'Sullivan
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    Dec 7th 2018, 2:23 AM

    Macron has used his twitter to publicly demonstrate how little tolerance he has for democracy. France you need to get the toxic banker out.

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    Mute jerry slattery
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    Dec 7th 2018, 12:16 AM

    One of the main spoke persons been interviewed on television for the movement is 62 year old Jean-François Barnaba . He complains that French people are over taxed . He is a Government civil servant on a salary of 2,600 euros NET a month not bad for France . The only problem is he has not done a days work in over 10 years as his role has been diminished but he is still paid for doing nothing …

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    Mute Lisa Saputo
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    Dec 7th 2018, 7:14 AM

    @jerry slattery: I’ll take his job!

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    Mute JustOneScoop
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    Dec 7th 2018, 6:53 AM

    I’m actually not sure what these lads want. What are their policies what are their solutions. If they are youth they should be concerned about tackling climate change today for their own future tomorrow. But how will they do it. Or is wreck the place a policy

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    Mute Lisa Saputo
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    Dec 7th 2018, 7:15 AM

    What exactly do these guys want? More money in their pocket or do they actually care about something?

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    Mute Seán Domhnall O'Sullivan
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    Dec 7th 2018, 7:32 AM

    @Lisa Saputo: just think ,you could have used the time you took to post that silly comment to inform yourself.

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    Mute Tomás Ó Tnúthail
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    Dec 7th 2018, 10:22 AM

    @Lisa Saputo: i think they want the rich to pay their fair share, instead banker boy macron gave them a nice cut to his rich mates, fuel tax rises disguised as a carbon tax with no alternatives but to be told to buy expensive electric, trying to dumb down unions etc etc…….least the French are united and not an easily divided and me fein type

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    Mute Dave McCrea
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    Dec 7th 2018, 6:42 PM

    Stupid French lunatics

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