Paris is on fire after yellow vests protesters have set cars alight and left them to burn in the streets of Paris, Daily Mail reported. On Sunday, police have replied with tear gas grenades and detained several people.
The demonstration against the French government’s tax policies resumed for the seventh consecutive week, the yellow vests clashed with riot police and set cars ablaze, so, Paris the most famous symbol, Eiffel Tour, shrouded in thick black smoke. Christmas didn’t come to Paris this year, say the local residents.
It is the seventh weekend in a row when gilets jaunes from the grassroots movement turned out this weekend to resume their standoff with authorities. The protesters want President Macron to resign, the government is trying to ease that standoff.
This weekend, the focus of the protests has morphed from anger over fuel taxes to a broad rebuke of Macron, accused by critics of neglecting the rising costs of living for many in rural and small-town France.
Tear gas was also fired in Nantes, western France, and protests were expected in Lyon, Bordeaux and Toulouse. Despite police’s measures, the die-hard gilets jaunes supporters believe the movement will live on in 2019 and plans are underway for New Year’s Eve protests. So far, around 126,000 ‘yellow vests’ – named after the fluorescent jackets they wear – were counted by the Interior Ministry during the biggest demonstrations in France’s history.
