here is why the demonstration in Paris Saturday could go wrong

Bis repetita. One of the spokesmen of the Yellow Vests Eric Drouet again called for a demonstration on the Champs-Elysees Saturday in Paris. "There will be the rendezvous, as last Saturday, at the Champs-Elysees.The wish of all yellow jackets is to continue every Saturday like that, the Champs-Elysees", he said Tuesday night at the end of his meeting with the Minister of Ecological Transition François de Rugy. Calls on social networks had already been launched since Sunday. On the Facebook page of the event, 30,000 citizens said they were ready to participate and 126,000 people said they were interested. The figure is, for the moment, less important than last week on the morning of the mobilization.

Read also – VERBATIM. Here are all the claims of Yellow Vests

The unauthorized gathering of Yellow Vests on Saturday November 24 on the Champs-Elysées had resulted in a series of violence and degrading. Throws of projectiles, fires of barricades: demonstrators had strongly opposed the police forces. They responded with tear gas and water lances. Appraisal: 31 injured, including seven on the side of the police, and 103 people arrested, including 101 placed in custody.

A dilemma for the authorities

Saturday, the authorities may face the same security problem: the presence – in number and without authorization – of protesters on the famous avenue of the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It is indeed excluded that yellow vests are allowed to gather on the Champs-Elysees. And this for two main reasons. On the one hand, it is a sensitive place of the capital. The Elysée, the Ministry of the Interior and several embbadies are nearby. On the other hand, it is a place that has many shops and is popular with tourists.

"Since 1934 never a demonstration, other than festive events, have been organized on this site *", said last Saturday the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner, in an allusion to a demonstration of February 6 of that year, supported by far-right leagues, which had turned into a bloodbath with the police. "My predecessors, the leaders, all knew that organizing an event on this site was problematic."

The police prefecture is therefore likely to face a dilemma:

• Either it leaves, as last week, the avenue Champs Elysées accessible and it may end up facing the same scenes of confrontation between the police and the Yellow Vests.
• Either it decides to close the metro stations and the streets allowing access to the Champs-Elysées and at that time, it is the shops of the Champs-Elysées which risk to undergo a strong fall of income to 3 weeks of Christmas. This solution does not guarantee, moreover, to contain the Yellow Vests in another place of the capital.

"We could have completely banned the Champs-Elysees and closed Paris but we did not make that choice.We called for the responsibility of everyone," said Christophe Castaner Saturday. A different choice could be made this time, thinks this journalist of Marianne.

Question of the day for the prefect of police: Should we ban all the Champs-Elysees Saturday? "Presumably yes," admits a government source @MarianneleMag

– Laurent Valdiguié (@Valdiguie) November 28, 2018

A demonstration of the CGT will also take place Saturday

To further complicate the situation, a demonstration of the CGT must also take place Saturday, December 1 in Paris. Asked about a possible merger of the processions, the Secretary General of the CGT, Philippe Martinez recalled that the demonstration of the CGT would be "not on the Champs-Elysees", where the "yellow vests" are called to go, like Saturday latest. "For now, there is no contact because, for the moment, in terms of coordination, you know very well about yellow vests, coordination is complicated," he noted.

* He forgets to mention the demonstration in support of General de Gaulle on May 30, 1968 that took place on the Champs Elysees.