Yellow vest protests: Activists clash with police in Paris during eighth weekend of demonstrations

Car, motorcycle and riverboat restaurant all set ablaze as riot police fire tear gas at anti-government activists

(AFP/Getty)

Protesters have clashed with police on the streets of Paris, just a day after president Emmanuel Macron’s government hardened its stance against violent “agitators”.

It marked the eighth consecutive weekend of the gilet jaunes (yellow vest) demonstrations, as the anti-government activists sought to inject fresh momentum into a movement that weakened over the holidays.

The protests began peacefully in the French capital, but deteriorated later in the afternoon as protesters hurled missiles at riot police barricading bridges over the Seine and torched garbage bins on Boulevard Saint Germain.

Officers fired tear gas to prevent hundreds of demonstrators crossing the river and reaching the National Assembly.

A car, a motorcycle and a riverboat restaurant were set ablaze, and a policeman was wounded when he was struck by a bicycle hurled from a street above the riverbank.

People marching from the Champs Elysees through central Paris had earlier waved banners reading “Macron, resign!” and “Abolish the privileges of the elite”.

The Galeries Lafayette department store briefly shuttered its metal grills, but most boutiques and restaurants remained open. Paris Metro lines were operating as normal.

Anger among workers over the squeeze on household incomes is driving the unrest, along with a belief that the president is deaf to the needs of low-income citizens as he enacts economic reforms.

The movement, which began in November over a fuel tax rise, is named after fluorescent vests French motorists must keep in their cars.

Shaken by two months of demonstrations, Mr Macron’s government began 2019 on the offensive. Earlier this week, a government spokesman dubbed the yellow vest protesters “agitators who promote insurrection to topple the government”.

An overturned car burns during demonstration (EPA)

Police also arrested one of the movement’s prominent figures, Eric Drouet, for organising an undeclared protest, before he was later released.

“They have no right to leave us in the shit like this,” said protester Francois Cordier on Saturday. “We’re fed up with having to pay out the whole time, we’ve had enough of this slavery, we should be able to live on our salaries. We have to give power back to the people and not a minority that serves its own interests,” said a second protester outside the old stockmarket building.

Thousands more gathered in Bordeaux in the southwest, Rouen in the north and Marseille in the southeast, though numbers appeared far below the tens of thousands seen on the streets in early weeks of the protests.

Anti-government protesters throw stones on a street in Rouen (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

The protests – 18 months into Mr Macron’s tenure – have already forced a series of concessions from the 41-year-old president.

Last month, the French president promised tax cuts for pensioners, wage rises for the poorest workers and the scrapping of planned fuel tax increases to quell the unrest at a cost to the Treasury €​10bn (£9bn).

The measures marked the first big U-turn for a president elected on a platform to break with traditional French politics and liberalise the heavily-regulated eurozone economy.

In a New Year’s Eve address, Mr Macron vowed to press on with his reform agenda, stating: “We can’t work less, earn more, cut taxes and increase spending.”

Faced with record low popularity ratings, the president is expected to pen a letter soon to the nation setting out his plans for the coming months.

These include a nationwide debate with citizens on ecological, fiscal and institutional questions, the results of which he says will feed into the policy-making process.

Additional reporting by agencies