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WORLD NEWS Monday 10 deceMber 2018

Paris cleans up after latest riot; pressure builds on Macron

By ANGELA CHARLTON must announce concrete
Associated Press measures to quell the fury.
PARIS (AP) — Paris tour- It won’t be enough to an-
ist sites reopened, workers nounce negotiations, he
cleaned up broken glass said in an interview with The
and shop owners tried Associated Press. People
to put the city on its feet want change and “con-
again Sunday, a day after crete, immediate, right
running battles between now” measures.
“yellow vest” protesters Even if Macron withdraws
and police that left at least his signature slashing of the
71 injured in the French wealth tax, “half of the yel-
capital and caused wide- low vests will go home, the
spread damage in cities other half will want him to
around France. resign and will stay in the
The man at the focus of streets,” Valette predicted.
protesters’ anger, President “Because the movement
Emmanuel Macron, broke isn’t controllable.”
his silence to tweet his ap- Wind and rain pummeled
preciation for the police Paris overnight, complicat-
overnight. However, pres- ing efforts to clean up de-
sure mounted on him to bris left by protesters, who
propose new solutions to threw anything they could
calm the anger dividing A man walks his dog past a tag reading : Happy Christmas Manu, referring to French President at police and set whatever
France. Emmanuel Macron, in Paris, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2018. they could on fire. Protesters
Macron will address the Associated Press ripped off the plywood pro-
nation “at the very begin- the nation” with “territorial A number of tourists at the Ei- is trying to modernize the tecting Parisian store win-
ning of the week,” govern- fractures.” Griveaux, the ffel Tower, which reopened French economy too fast. dows and threw flares and
ment spokesman Benjamin government spokesman, Sunday after closing Satur- Some 1,220 people were other projectiles. French riot
Griveaux said Sunday, with- speaking on LCI TV station, day, said they were avoid- taken into custody around police repeatedly repelled
out specifying a day. said he was “sure (Ma- ing the Champs-Elysees, France, the Interior Ministry them with tear gas and wa-
The economy minister la- cron) will know how to find Paris’ main avenue that is said Sunday — a round- ter cannon.
mented the damage to the path to the hearts of lined with shops and cafes up the scale of which the “What happened yester-
the economy. the French, speak to their and normally a magnet for country hasn’t seen in day and the Saturday be-
“This is a catastrophe for hearts.” foreign visitors. years. French police frisked fore, it was unforgettable,”
commerce, it’s a catas- The president must also “Yes, we’re very con- protesters at train stations said Jean-Pierre Duclos.
trophe for our economy,” speak to their pocketbooks. cerned with security ... but around the country, con- “It happened in a country
Bruno Le Maire said Sunday Among myriad demands we couldn’t cancel the fiscating everything from like France that supposed
while visiting merchants voiced by protesters, mea- trip,” Portuguese tourist Eliz- heavy metal petanque to be sophisticated, it’s un-
around the Saint Lazare sures to increase buying abet Monteero said. But, balls to tennis rackets — bearable and it cannot be
train station, among areas power were a bottom line. she added, “We don’t go anything that could be forgiven.”
hit by vandalism as the pre- The number of injured in to dangerous zones like the used as a weapon. Police and protesters also
Christmas shopping season Paris and nationwide was Champs-Elysees.” Most of the yellow vest clashed in other French cit-
got underway. down Saturday from pro- France deployed some demonstrators in Paris ap- ies, notably Marseille, Tou-
After the fourth Saturday test riots a week ago, and 89,000 police but still failed peared to be working class louse and Bordeaux, and
of nationwide protests by most of the capital re- to deter the determined men from elsewhere in in neighboring Belgium.
a grassroots movement mained untouched. Still, TV protesters. Some 125,000 France, angry at economic Some protesters took aim
with broadening demands footage broadcast around yellow vests took to the inequalities and stagna- Saturday at the French
officials said they under- the world of the violence streets Saturday around tion. border with Italy, creating
stood the depth of the in Paris neighborhoods France with a bevy of de- Thierry Paul Valette, who huge traffic jams. Some 135
crisis. Le Maire said it was popular with tourists has mands related to high liv- helps coordinate yellow people were injured na-
a social and democratic tarnished the country’s im- ing costs and a sense that vest protesters who come tionwide, including the 71
crisis as well as a “crisis of age. Macron favors the elite and to Paris, said the president in Paris.q