More
'yellow vest' protests to take place in France on Saturday and New Year's Eve.
Yellow vests (Gilets jaunes) protesters demonstrate in Nantes, western France,
on December 22, 2018.
The "yellow
vest" anti-government protests that have rocked France will be held on
Saturday and New Year's Eve, and continue into 2019, several sources in the
movement have said.
"The yellow vests are still mobilized,"
said Laetitia Dewalle, one spokeswoman of the protest movement which does not
have a traditional leadership structure.
Several
of the movement's representatives said a seventh straight Saturday of protests
will take place across the country this weekend. Yellow-vest representative
Benjamin Cauchy said protesters
would be out on New Year's Eve as well, "to show that the mobilization
will not end in the New Year".
Cauchy
also warned that if the concessions made so far by President Emmanuel Macron
did not add up, "we will end up with a large-scale mobilization in late
January".
Earlier
on Thursday, Paris city officials said that New Year's Eve celebrations on the
Champs-Elysees will go ahead despite the protest plans on the famed avenue.
Tens
of thousands of tourists and locals traditionally ring in the New Year on the
wide shopping boulevard, which
ends with the Arc de Triomphe monument.
The
Champs-Elysees has since last month been the epicentre of repeated violent
protests against Macron's government, with the Arc de Triomphe ransacked on
December 1.
While
the numbers turning out at protests across the country have dwindled
dramatically, several thousand people are listed on Facebook as planning to
attend what it calls a "festive and non-violent event" on New Year's
Eve.
Paris
officials said they would continue as planned with
preparations for a fireworks display and sound and light show on the
Champs-Elysees under the theme "fraternity".
The
avenue is a regular gathering point for national celebrations such as Bastille
Day, the Tour de France and France's victory this summer in the football World
Cup.
But
on recent Saturdays it has been the scene of violent clashes between riot
police and "yellow vest" protesters who accuse Macron of favoring the
rich with his policies.
The
movement sprang up online in October and spiraled into the worst crisis of
Macron's presidency, with tens of thousands blocking roads and protesting across
France.
Macron
sought to defuse the crisis in mid-December by announcing a 10 billion euro
($11.4 billion) package of measures to
help pensioners and low-paid workers.
Since
then the "yellow vests" have been split between moderates willing to
engage in dialogue with the government and others intent on remaining at the
barricades.
Priscillia
Ludosky, who launched an online petition against
rising fuel taxes in May that is credited with a major role in sparking the
movement, said the measures announced by Macron were "insufficient and
without any real desire to improve the living standard of the French".
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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