France’s Yellow Vests Mark Year of Protests With Violence

(Bloomberg) -- Police and rioters clashed in the French capital on Saturday as authorities sought to contain protests marking the first anniversary of the start of the “Yellow Vests” movement.

At least 61 people were detained in Paris, with riot police deploying tear gas and water cannons as violence erupted at the Place d’Italie in the southern part of the city, where demonstrators had gathered for a march that authorities later banned.

A tense standoff unfolded with windows of an HSBC branch getting smashed, cars overturned and fires set, television and social media videos showed. Some rioters wearing black clothes, goggles and face coverings threw projectiles at police through thick smoke.

Paris police chief Didier Lallement said that the perpetrators of the violence -- whom he called “ultra yellows” or “black blocs” -- would be contained within the area and systematically detained.

“Individuals came not to defend a cause, but to destroy,” he said in a televised press conference Saturday afternoon. “This situation is perfectly under control.”

The rest of the capital remained calm, he said, warning demonstrations planned for Sunday would also be halted should violence erupt.

The French government is deploying tens of thousands of police nationwide this weekend as protesters try to revive the movement that began a year ago over gas prices and morphed into a broader social protest that lasted for months and was marked by episodes of violent rioting. In a bid to counter a repeat of the scenes of destruction, police on Saturday began blocking access to the celebrated Champs-Elysees avenue in the early hours of the morning.

At the height of the movement last year, the demonstrations attracted hundreds of thousands across the country. They were largely peaceful at the beginning, but violence erupted including on Dec. 1, 2018, when the Arc de Triomphe was ransacked. On several occasions as anti-government sentiment gathered steam there was also widespread looting and vandalism on the Champs-Elysees.

The Yellow Vests protests hit pockets of the French economy last winter including in the hotel, restaurant and retail sector, which was especially hard hit during the crucial year-end holiday period. While President Emmanuel Macron unleashed billions of euros of extra public spending to appease protesters, he’s now facing a planned strike on Dec. 5 by train and hospital workers and civil servants.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tara Patel in Paris at tpatel2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, James Amott, Sara Marley

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