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Paris (AFP) – New clashes in the "Yellow Vest" demonstrations across France have resulted in more injuries on Sunday, adding to the more than 400 already reported by the government, while some protesters have vowed to prosecute their actions in the next few days.
AFP journalists in France said the protests seemed less widespread than Saturday, with nearly 300,000 people participating, but there were clashes again with police – and sometimes motorists.
Police were looking for a driver who forced a roadblock in Saint-Quentin, northeastern France, making a protester seriously injured.
And police used tear gas to disperse around a thousand protesters near the city of Caen in the north of the country, after vandalism of traffic radar and fire wooden pallets.
Protesters, dubbed "yellow vests" for their high visibility vests, blocked Saturday roundabouts, major highways and major highways to express their anger over the increase in fuel taxes and the contraction of their purchasing power under President Emmanuel Macron.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that the first days and nights of protests had left one dead and more than 400 injured, including 14 seriously.
The French retail group Auchan reported violent incidents in around 20 shopping centers where it operates hypermarkets.
The wounded, 409 in total, included 28 police officers, paramilitary policemen or firefighters.
– & # 39; silly behavior & # 39; –
Castaner told RTL Radio that 288,000 people took part in Saturday's protests in 2,034 locations across the country. About 3,500 people spent the night outside, he added.
Police questioned nearly 300 protesters and arrested about half of them.
"Last night was hectic … there were assaults, fights, knife attacks," Castaner said. "There were fights between the protesters of the" yellow vest. "There was a lot of alcohol in some places, which led to this silly behavior."
Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin said Sunday that the government was aware of the dissatisfaction with fuel taxes, but said it had "the duty" to turn the French economy into a goal to make it less dependent on oil.
A poll published Sunday in the Sunday Journal indicates that 62% of respondents believe that their buying power is more important than a rapid transition to renewable energy.
The storms came on at times when some drivers confronted protesters or tried to make their way through barricades.
In eastern Savoy, authorities announced that a woman was trying to convince her daughter to go see a doctor panicked after protesters had surrounded her car and hit her on the roof. She accelerated in the crowd and killed a 63-year-old woman.
The driver was charged with manslaughter before being released on conditional bail, prosecutors said.
– More soon? –
In several places in the country, protesters promised to continue their action Monday and beyond.
A spokesman for the movement in the western region of Morbihan said: "tomorrow, we will be joined by truck drivers", while in the city of Le Mans, southwest of Paris, protesters said that the farmers would help block a major freeway, the A28 in the lead up to the Picardy coast.
"There are a lot of young people here because we can not make ends meet," said Emilie, 27-year-old temporary sales manager in Cavaillon, in the south of the country.
"We work as slaves and at one point, it's enough, we have no life, we only survive," she said.
According to analysts, the move has become a more widespread source of frustration for Macron, a former investment banker who has completed a series of reforms to support economic growth.
A survey published in the Journal du Dimanche revealed that Macron's popularity had dropped another four points to 25%.
The survey was conducted from November 9 to 17 among 1,957 respondents.
strawberries / jh / dl
