Motivated return of the Yellow Vests

Saturday September 12, return of the Yellow Vests throughout France.

They decided to come back to school after rallies on roundabouts in August. As of Saturday morning, they gathered in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Nice, Lille, Nantes and Strasbourg to parade, taking into account, if possible, barrier gestures. The slogans have not changed: constitutional change by referendum, improved purchasing power, lower VAT on basic necessities, higher wages and lower rents.

In Paris, more than a thousand demonstrators gathered at Place Wagram (75017), the starting point of one of the 2 authorized processions. A total of 6,000 people marched across France according to the Interior Ministry, including 2,500 in the capital.

The Champs-Elysées and Etoile sectors were off-limits and the second procession left from Place de la Bourse, where comedian Jean-Marie Bigard was expected to demonstrate alongside the Gilets Jaunes. Having disassociated himself from Jérôme Rodriguez, he was booed, insulted and mistreated and had to leave quickly.

The police fired tear gas around 12:30 p.m. to push back the demonstrators and prevent them from approaching the Champs-Elysées. Garbage cans and a scooter were set on fire as well as a car on Boulevard Pereire a little later.

While groups did not respect the itinerary, the police had to intervene on the side of the Wagram square, after a “face to face” which takes place in the afternoon at the Place du Brésil where the gathering is punctuated by jets of tear gas and bottles.

In the morning, the « yellow vests » were already a hundred in front of the Brogniart palace, among these demonstrators, Jean-Marie Bigard, candidate declared in the next presidential election. The comedian was greeted very freshly, with some shouting « Bigard collabo ». Jean-Marie Bigard had indeed announced his presence at the Parisian demonstrations before retracting Thursday after Jerome Rodrigues likened the police to a « gang of Nazis », during an exchange on Twitter with the Synergie-officers union.

Conspired by several « yellow vests », Jean-Marie Bigard took refuge for a while in a restaurant, explaining that it was a « bad interpretation ». “For a while people thought I was letting them go, which is wrong, that’s all,” he told reporters.

Heckled and insulted upon his arrival, the comedian took refuge for a while in a local restaurant. After being greeted coldly, Jean-Marie Bigard recalled that he remained « in solidarity with the yellow vests » but that he dissociated himself from the words of Jérôme Rodrigues.

During the mobilization of yellow vests which took place on September 12 in Paris, a group of demonstrators briefly broke into the premises of the BFMTV television channel in Paris (15th century), attacking journalists and jostling agents security, they « strongly jostled security agents », and degraded a door, before being evacuated by the police who arrived shortly after the intrusion, the director general of Altice told AFP Media, Arthur Dreyfuss, of which BFMTV is part.

The filing of a complaint is underway, added Arthur Dreyfuss, who « strongly condemns these scandalous acts and unacceptable remarks ». And to continue: « The BFMTV teams are doing essential work and will continue to inform the French. » Arthur Dreyfuss further added that security measures would be tightened at BFMTV. This is the first time that yellow vests have intruded there.

Jérôme Rodrigues, a figure in the yellow vests movement, took stock of the day of mobilization on September 12 in Paris and took the opportunity to criticize the order of Paris prefect Didier Lallement banning certain sectors of the capital from demonstrators. « The first act of violence that prefect Lallement posed today is his decree of September 8, which forced the whole of Paris and the demonstrators to be able to demonstrate as they see fit », declared Jérôme Rodrigues .

But there is another factor which participates in “weakening” the movement: “As soon as spokespersons or leaders seem to impose themselves and want to engage politically, there is a kind of rejection by a whole part of the movement. base of ‘yellow vests’ ”, underlines Jean-François Amadieu. « We saw it with the Jean-Marie Bigard episode », targeted and exfiltrated from the mobilization in the morning, against a backdrop of strong tensions with a figure of the movement, Jérôme Rodrigues.

Didier Lallement, the Paris police prefect, confirmed the assistance, as of this Saturday, of a “supervisor” for each bearer of LBD in order to help “in the control and proper use” of this weapon, and the withdrawal of the old hand grenades de-encirclement (GMD) replaced by a new model, deemed less dangerous, in accordance with the announcements of the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin on Friday.

In Lyon, around 500 demonstrators gathered. They were between 400 and 500 in Bordeaux. In Quimper, a little more than a hundred yellow vests marched through the city center.

In Toulouse, where demonstrations are prohibited, demonstrators were blocked early in the afternoon by law enforcement officials, who used tear gas. An hour later, the “yellow vests” dispersed in the adjacent streets.

In Marseille, nearly 300 people gathered in the Old Port. An important security system has been put in place.

In Saint-Etienne, between 50 and 100 demonstrators gathered at the Place du Peuple. One of the leaders of the movement was arrested by the police for organizing an undeclared demonstration. In reaction, around 20 people decided to gather in front of the police station.

In Bordeaux, the demonstration gathered, according to AFP, 500 people in peace. « As long as social anger is there, as long as people are more and more precarious, social anger will not be extinguished, » said mask on the nose, Antoine Boudinet, local figure of the movement after having had his hand torn off by a tear gas canister, on the sidelines of a demonstration.

In Nancy, a declared demonstration took place, the prefecture of Meurthe-et-Moselle estimating the number of participants at 350, « without major incident to report », with one person arrested « for insulting a police officer ».

In Montpellier, France bleu Hérault and Midi Libre noted some clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement, Place de la Comédie, with « bottles and tear gas being thrown ». The regional daily counted 200 yellow vests.
According to France Bleu, several gatherings were organized in Dordogne, several dozen in Périgueux, and a « handful » on a roundabout in Brantôme.

The mobilization of the “yellow vests” was relatively weak for their return to school demonstration after a long break.

« The movement, which existed through its presence in the street, hardly exists any more, » explains Jérôme Sainte-Marie, political scientist and president of the research and consulting firm Polling Vox, on Europe 1.

“We are coming out of six months when there were no possible mobilizations, and if you are looking for the last major mobilization of ‘yellow vests’, I think we have to go back to May 1, 2019, so it has been a very long time since movement has practically disappeared in the streets ”, continues the political scientist who explains this phenomenon by a desire for convergence of struggles. “I believe there are several causes for this, including a form of ‘leftism’ of its spokespersons who wanted to practice a form of convergence of struggles. They were also associated with the mobilization around Adama Traoré. And this temptation to converge has ended in disaster. ”

According to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, around 6,000 people demonstrated in France this Saturday, including 2,500 in Paris. During a press briefing at the police headquarters, he also said that there had been “around 300 arrests”.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin gave his « support to the security forces who are calling on the violent troublemakers ». He stressed that “republican order” must “take hold”.

According to the Paris police headquarters, 256 people were arrested this Saturday in the capital, at least 90 were fined. 147 people were taken into custody, according to a report established at 7:30 p.m. Many people were arrested Saturday morning during « upstream checks, individuals checked and carrying weapons by destination, » said the prefecture.

People were carrying « objects that have no place in a demonstration » such as « screwdrivers, ice ax, wire cutters, hood, knives, bow, » she said on Twitter.

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