French PM calls for ‘national unity’ after Paris violence

A huge clean up operation has been launched in Paris after France’s “yellow vest” movement took to the streets for the fourth week running.

Demonstrators clashed with riot police in the French capital on Saturday, setting fire to cars, burning barricades and smashing windows in pockets of violence, but a heavy security deployment prevented a repeat of last week’s destruction.

Even though the fuel tax rises that sparked the protests have been cancelled, official figures showed 125,000 protesters turned out across France on Saturday, slightly down from 136,000 last week.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said it was time for dialogue “to knit our national unity back together.”

Discussions with peaceful protesters “must continue,” Philippe said. 

“No tax is that important to threaten national unity. We must continue with dialogue, with coming together.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has not spoken publicly since last week’s violent scenes in the capital, would soon propose measures” to bring the French nation together,” the prime minister added.

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner praised the police for containing much of the unrest, while Macron thanked the security forces for their work in a Tweet.

Translation: To all [the security] forces that mobilised today, thank you for the courage and the exceptional professionalism you showed. 

À toutes les forces de l’ordre mobilisées aujourd’hui, merci pour le courage et l’exceptionnel professionnalisme dont vous avez fait preuve.

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 8, 2018

Security forces arrested 1,723 people across France, according to the interior ministry, 1,220 of whom were ordered held in custody.

Castaner also said 118 protesters were injured, mostly in traffic accidents, compared with 220 last week, while 17 members of security forces were injured, down from 284 last Saturday.

Gendarmerie police said they had checked more than 5,000 people on the roads around the capital in the morning, confiscating potential weapons and protective equipment.

The relative calm seemed to owe more to the revised police tactics than to the government’s decision to cancel the petrol and diesel tax rises that had been due to take effect next year.

Police fired tear gas canisters and pepper spray at  protesters in central Paris and other parts of France.

In Paris, authorities counted 10,000 demonstrators, far more than last week’s official estimate of 5,500.

“Yellow vest” protesters in the capital seemed unimpressed by the government’s concessions, as chants of “Macron, resign,” rang out.

“We did the first act, Macron did not hear us, act two, he ignored us, act three, we don’t exist, today we do act four to see if he reacts,” a protester in Paris told Al Jazeera on Saturday.

Many other protesters believe they are fighting for “dignity” and better conditions in France. 

“They don’t hear the word dignity, dignity is all we want, the dignity of making a living out of our work,” a protester said.

Since the government scrapped the fuel tax hike and froze gas and electricity prices for 2019, the “yellow vest” movement has continued with a broader set of economic demands, including lower taxes, higher salaries, cheaper energy costs, better retirement provisions and even Macron’s resignation.

Steve Bannon, the former strategist of US President Donald Trump, said at an event on Saturday in Brussels that the Yellow Vests in France are the “exact same type of people” that voted for Trump and for Brexit.

Trump also said it was time to “end the ridiculous and extremely expensive Paris agreement.”

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? The U.S. was way ahead of the curve on that and the only major country where emissions went down last year!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2018

Left-wing Canadian author Naomi Klein meanwhile wrote on Twitter that the protests showed the need for a new approach to climate policy. “Neo-liberal” pro-business climate action was seen as “a class war, because it is,” Klein tweeted.

The protests also spilled over from France into Belgium and the Netherlands.

On Saturday, hundreds of people took to the streets in the Netherlands demanding that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte step down and their country exit the EU.

In Brussels, about 400 people were arrested at the protests, with 1,000 people taking part, according to police.