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Conservative lawmaker Eric Ciotti has urged French President Emmanuel Macron to ban protests scheduled for Saturday for the yellow vest to prevent further violence. He said, "I ask [the government] to ban all protests scheduled for this Saturday, February 23, to avoid further violence to the yellow jacket. I supported the expression of this anger that began as a people's revolt against overly high taxes, unfair budget rules and economic inefficiency, but the violence has become unbearable, unacceptable and must stop. We can not tolerate it anymore.
French police fired tear gas to disperse protesters who threw projectiles and burned garbage cans in Paris and other major cities on Saturday, while the 14th weekend of protests took a violent turn in the morning. # 39; afternoon.
Anti-government protesters have also been accused of anti-Semitic abuses and anti-police attacks.
Prosecutors opened an investigation into a group of protesters who proffered anti-Semitic insults against philosopher and writer Alain Finkielkraut during a demonstration wearing a yellow vest in Paris.
In another incident, a police car stuck in a traffic jam in Lyon, southeastern France, was stoned by rioters.
The demonstrations, which have no organized leadership and are called fluorescent lifejackets, began three months ago with rising fuel taxes.
Conservative leader Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the opposition Republican party, also called on the government to ban unauthorized demonstrations wearing a yellow vest and to punish rioters in response to the clashes.
He said: "When a protest is not declared, it is called an illegal badembly. And it is these illegal gatherings that lead to violence.
"In the face of thugs, we need a firmer response. Unauthorized demonstrations and demonstrations that we fear will turn into violence must be banned, "he continued before criticizing the" weak response "of the Macron government to the social crisis that is shaking France.
What began as a "peaceful" protest movement has become increasingly violent on the sidelines, he warned.
Three months after the beginning of the popular movement, we have "less and less" protesters and "more and more" violence, continued the conservative leader, adding that a "culture of permissive" s & # 39; was rooted in France and that "the President of the Republic gave to violence."
Health Minister Agnès Buzyn also called Monday at the end of protests against the yellow vest, informing the TV channel LCI that the movement, once peaceful, had "radicalized" and "deviated".
In an interview with Europe 1 radio, the Minister for Relations with Parliament, Marc Fesneau, also denounced the outbreak of violence to protest the "unbearable" and "displaced" acts committed by yellow vests.
A poll released Sunday showed less and less support for yellow vest events. More than half of those surveyed said they want the protests to end.
Ifop's online poll for the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) on February 13th and 14th, among 1,012 people, shows that 52% of French people want the weekly events to stop, up 15 percentage points in one month.
For their part, 38% of those polled said protesters should hold a 15th consecutive Saturday of protests, down 14 points from last month.
According to the French Ministry of the Interior, the number of protesters increased from more than 300,000 nationwide in November to about 51,000 last week.
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