« Yellow Vests »: demonstrated Saturday in France for their act 13

Mobilization decreases overall every Saturday since mid-January, according to Beauvau figures: January 19, the number of « yellow vests » reached 84,000, they were 69,000 on January 26 and 58,600 February 2.

In the capital, incidents occurred when the procession arrived in front of the National Assembly, where a protester in his thirties had a hand torn off. According to the police headquarters, he had « four fingers torn ».

The cause and the circumstances of the injury remain uncertain. According to a witness, this is a « de-encircling grenade », launched by the police and that the 30-year-old wanted to fend off a « hand », while demonstrators were trying to drive the palisades protecting the Assembly.

Incidents took place on the course of the event, which arrived around 16:30 near the Eiffel Tower, in a tense atmosphere, and ended before 20 hours after dispersal by the police, which remained present, like every Saturday, on the Champs-Élysées. Street furniture and bank machines were broken, a dozen vehicles burned, mainly luxury cars but also a car of the Military Sentinel anti-terrorist mission.

Reacting to this latest incident, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner denounced on Twitter « intolerable attacks » and expressed his « indignation and disgust ». The Paris public prosecutor’s office announced in the evening that a man had been taken into custody as part of an investigation opened for « destruction by fire of a property of public utility ».

In Bordeaux, several thousand « yellow vests » held rallies, often enamelled clashes. In the procession floated many French flags, and a black anarchist flag, behind banners proclaiming: « On the road to a better world ».

In Lyon, clashes on Saturday against « yellow vests » and police, which have several times prevented the procession of demonstrators from entering the « peninsula », the shopping node of the hyper-center Lyon.

Tensions erupted in Paris, Toulouse and Rennes, but dozens of demonstrations, elsewhere in France, have instead proceeded calmly.

At 19:00, the Interior Ministry announced 51,400 demonstrators in France, including 4,000 in Paris. During the last two Saturdays, the mobilization was down, with less than 60,000 protesters, a figure challenged by the movement that claimed twice as much.

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Gabriel MIHAI

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