France protests: clashes near the Élysée Palace in Paris

Protests in France against high prices and social inequality have reached Paris: after dark, police clashed with a crowd a few hundred metres from the Élysée Palace, the president’s residence.

“A car has been overturned on Rue Cambacérès in Paris. Rioters are pushing a construction cabin towards CRS riot police advancing on them. We are only 400 metres from the Élysée Palace,” Le Parisien reporter David Charpentier wrote on X. According to him, the street was completely covered in stones, and the scenes resembled urban guerrilla warfare.

A Le Monde reporter wrote that a rumour of a march on the Élysée Palace spread at Place de la République and around Bastille, and protesters gradually discovered that water cannon and police were stationed there “in large numbers”. According to him, the demonstrators got within just 200 metres of the palace, but after being fired on with tear gas grenades on Rue Boissy d’Anglas, they turned towards Rue Saint-Honoré.

Violence in other cities

The protests turned into violence and vandalism in several other cities, including Marseille, Bordeaux and Lille, where a crowd ransacked the buildings of several institutions. In Saint-Étienne, a police grenade tore off a protester’s hand. According to media reports on Saturday afternoon, around four hundred people were detained across the country. Organisers put the number of demonstrators at roughly 800,000, the authorities at half a million.

President Macron wrote on X: “There is no place for violence in our republic. Those who smashed and attacked prefectures and shops, and even looted our town halls, will be prosecuted and punished.” He added that everyone would unite against the “spreaders of chaos” who seek only to destroy institutions and hinder those who peacefully voice their demands.

Source: novinky.cz