France: the "yellow vests" are released serenely | Chronic

Tens of thousands of French have returned to walk in different cities of the country to protest against the economic and social model of the government of Emanuel Macron and, although there were isolated altercations, there were no serious acts of violence because the more radicalized groups of the movement known as "yellow shawls" could not not scroll in sensitive places, such as the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

On the nineteenth consecutive Saturday of demonstrations of this movement, 40 500 people participated in the parades, according to the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, which is an increase from 32,000 last Saturday.

The figures were much higher for the organizers, 127.212, but they are in any case several times lower than those given by the two organizers at the height of the mobilization, at the end of November and the beginning of December 2018.

For the French government, the main thing was that the excesses of the previous Saturday do not happen again, hundreds of protesters out of the ranks of "yellow vests" attacked dozens of shops on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, and even stole and burned. some

From the beginning of the week, this new strategy was proposed with the dismissal of the prefect of the Paris police and its replacement by another bearing the slogan "Agents act quickly in case of violence and establish a security perimeter in two weeks ". cities where demonstrations were prohibited.

Following a political controversy, he also decided to expand the military deployment of the Sentinel anti-terrorist mission to ensure the surveillance of official buildings and disaffiliate those functions of the police and gendarmes who could devote themselves to the maintenance of the public order.

Thus, 65,000 people mobilized throughout France have made 233 arrests, 107 people fined for being concentrated on prohibited areas of demonstration and, in Paris only, carried out preventive controls on 8,645 additional people, has reproduced the agency EFE.

In Paris, according to the executive, 5,000 demonstrators marched calmly between the Denfert Rochereau square and the Montmartre hill, far from the Champs-Élysées where they had been forbidden to demonstrate. But two hours after the dispersal, the situation seemed tense when a minority of participants who settled in the city center began to provoke altercations – with the destruction of street furniture and the burning of containers – on the boulevard. Strasbourg, then around the Plaza de la República.
The rapid intervention of the riot police with tear gas and some charges forced their dispersion. An officer suffered on the spot – on the sidelines of the clashes – a heart attack and had to be evacuated in a very serious state.

The tensions were not limited to Paris, but there were incidents in other cities such as Lille, Lyon, Bordeaux, but especially in Nice and Montpellier.

In Nice, where 80 arrests were made, a woman over 70 years old was seriously injured in a police case while law enforcement authorities expelled a group of "yellow vests" who had challenged the police. 39, prohibition to focus on the place. Garibaldi, in the center.

Something similar happened in Montpellier (south), where, according to the prefecture, 4,500 demonstrators were present. There have been riots since the beginning of the afternoon in Plaza de la Comedia and its surroundings. The riot police used tear gas to cause the dispersal.

In Bordeaux (south-west), the police expelled groups of "yellow vests" that were trying to focus on Pey Berland Square, one of the areas where demonstrations had also been banned.