Menu
24matins.uk24matins.uk
Get the app
Navigation : 
Currently : 
  • United States
  • Diplomacy
  • Crime
  • Rohingya
  • France
  • The European Union

French ‘yellow vests’ shut down top Paris department store

World > France > Lead > French ‘yellow vests’ shut down top Paris department store
By 24matins.uk with AFP,  published 17 November 2019 at 11h42 GMT, updated on 17 November 2019 at 18h48 GMT.
 3 minutes
World
Yellow vest protesters occupied the glitzy Galeries Lafayette department story in Paris Sunday

Yellow vest protesters occupied the glitzy Galeries Lafayette department story in Paris Sunday© AFP Philippe LOPEZ

French “yellow vest” demonstrators occupied a top Parisian department store on Sunday, a day after clashes in the capital on the first anniversary of the protest movement.

The glitzy Galeries Lafayette store in the Opera shopping district was evacuated after dozens of protesters chanting anti-capitalist and anti-government slogans took over the third floor.

“(President Emmanuel) Macron is destroying France and your rights, don’t criticise us” We’re here for you,” one placard read.

The protesters were expelled shortly afterwards by security staff.

The store — one of the top destinations in Paris for moneyed foreign tourists, which was targeted by the demonstrators as a “consumerist temple” — said it would remain closed for the rest of the day.

There have been ‘yellow vest’ protests across France this weekend

There have been ‘yellow vest’ protests across France this weekend© AFP CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU

The protest came on a second day of demonstrations to mark the anniversary of a leaderless revolt that badly rattled President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government.

Twenty people were arrested Sunday in Paris but in most places the protests were peaceful.

On Saturday, police in Paris had battled rioters for hours around the southeastern Place d’Italie square, where a yellow vest march was shut down by the authorities after turning violent.

Several cars were overturned or set alight, bus shelters were smashed and a monument to a World War II hero Marshal Alphonse Juin was defaced by demonstrators dressed in black, who wore masks to hide their faces.

‘Thugs’ and ‘brutes’

Police checked thousands of demonstrators on Saturday and Sunday, and prosecutors said 155 were in detention including eight minors.

Yellow vest protesters also returned to some of the traffic roundabouts occupied at the start of the rebellion

Yellow vest protesters also returned to some of the traffic roundabouts occupied at the start of the rebellion© AFP CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU

Castaner claimed that there were “few demonstrators” among at the protesters in Paris, who he said were mainly “thugs, brutes who came to fight the security forces and prevent the emergency services from doing their work“.

But leftist TV historian Mathilde Larrere wrote on Twitter that she and two friends were prevented from leaving the protest after the clashes began because of police kettling tactics.

She accused the police of tactics “unworthy of a democratic state“, citing “the repeated teargassing and (stun) grenades going off everywhere”.

In rural France, by contrast, the mood of the anniversary was more festive. Many yellow vests returned to the traffic roundabouts they occupied last year when they began rebelling against Macron’s economic policies.

‘Macron, I hate you with all my heart’: yellow vest demonstrators accuse the French president of ruling for the urban elite

‘Macron, I hate you with all my heart’: yellow vest demonstrators accuse the French president of ruling for the urban elite© AFP Philippe LOPEZ

The interior ministry put the number of demonstrators on Saturday at 28,600 nationwide but the organisers said nearly 40,000 people had rallied — a far cry from the estimated 282,000 who took part in the first big day of protests on November 17, 2018.

The yellow vests, who accuse Macron of ruling on behalf of the urban elite — the spark for the protests was a series of fuel price hikes that squeezed car-dependent rural-dwellers — are adamant that they have not gone away.

They are now looking to join forces with the trade union movement, which is planning a major transport strike over pension reforms starting on December 5.

Learn more
  • France’s Macron to hold meeting on pensions as strike bites
  • On Ukraine frontline, soldiers fear Zelensky will give ground
  • Putin vs Zelensky : two very different presidents face off

Dans World

6h05 GMT
France’s Macron to hold meeting on pensions as strike bites
5h38 GMT
At least 35 killed in Delhi factory fire
5h28 GMT
Gunman at US military base showed mass shooting videos at party : report
5h25 GMT
Pearl Harbor veteran interred on sunken ship
4h58 GMT
Smoke haze settles over Australian capital as bushfires burn
3h43 GMT
Hong Kong protesters aim for big turnout at rare sanctioned march
3h43 GMT
Detained Canadians in China cut off from the world
3h03 GMT
North Korea conducts ‘very important test’ : KCNA
2h57 GMT
On Ukraine frontline, soldiers fear Zelensky will give ground
2h31 GMT
High stakes : Myanmar’s Lady gambles image in Rohingya genocide lawsuit
  • About Us
  • Management of personal data
  • Edition :
  • United Kingdom
  • France
  • Deutschland
  • España
  • América Latina
  • South Asia
© 2019 - All rights reserved on 24matins.uk site content - ADN Contents -