President Emmanuel Macron and his Prime Minister Edouard Philippe believe that the movement of yellow vests has lasted long enough. They also denounce the violence of this Saturday.
The executive showed firmness on Sunday, the day after the “act VI” of ” yellow vests “, President Emmanuel Macron calling for the restoration of “order” and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe condemning the few excesses.
“We must appease the divisions”
“It is now order that must reign, calm and concord. Our country needs this (…) We must appease the divisions, ” said the head of state to BFMTV , traveling to Chad.
“It is obvious that the most severe judicial responses will be made.”
At three days of Christmas, the mobilization was less than in previous “Saturdays” and clashes with the police and violence enamelled demonstrations, fewer than those that had marked previous days of mobilization.
But the executive denounces a radicalization of the movement and “unheard-of violence”. It includes the incident filmed and broadcast in continuous loop on news channels showing police bikers caught in the Champs-Elysees and one of them briefly draws his weapon.
READ ALSO: Yellow vests against police on motorcycle in Paris: investigation for “voluntary violence”
It also refers to other images showing about twenty “yellow vests” intoning on the song of the Partisans the song of the quenelle Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala condemned in 2017 for antisemitic remarks, and a puppet with the effigy of Emmanuel Macron beheaded Friday evening in Angoulême
▶️ A Montmartre, plusieurs gilets jaunes entonnent “La quenelle”, chanson de l’humoriste antisémite Dieudonné pic.twitter.com/B0IySJFgzX
— Yahoo Actualités (@YahooActuFR) December 22, 2018
The prime minister denounced Sunday in a message on Twitter “a mock decapitation of the head of state … Aggressions of unprecedented violence against police … anti-Semitic gestures in the middle of Paris …”.
“It is out of the question to trivialize such acts which must be the subject of a unanimous condemnation and penal sanctions.”
The day before, the spokesman of the government Benjamin Griveaux had lambasted “a single face, coward, racist, anti-Semitic, putschist”, who led these actions. In late November, the minister had already referred to “the brown plague” to denounce violence attributed to the ultra-narrow.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner also stressed “a despicable act” after alleged anti-Semitic insults proffered by “yellow vests” against an old lady in the Paris metro, ensuring that perpetrators are prosecuted. An investigation has been opened.
READ ALSO: Yellow vests: a puppet with the effigy of Emmanuel Macron decapitated, an open investigation
“Politics is like boxing”
Many “yellow vests” denounce the degradation, calling to avoid “amalgam” with their movement against rising taxes and lower purchasing power.
Sign of the firmness of the executive, one of the initiators of “yellow vests”, Éric Drouet, was arrested Saturday in Paris. He will be tried later and the prosecutor ‘s request that it is forbidden to appear by then in the capital, learned the AFP from judicial source.
Created in mid-October, Éric Drouet’s Facebook page calling for a “national block against the rise in fuels” was quickly followed by tens of thousands of people, starting the national mobilisation of November 17th, the “act I” of “Yellow vests”.
At two days of Christmas, a period of respite seems to be emerging for the executive even if “yellow vests” promise to resume in January.
It is a “real compression of the mobilisation”, reacted Saturday night the Minister of the Interior.
“At the end of the year, our country needs order, calm, and peace.”
“To send everything on a whim, it’s not me”
Particularly exposed, the Prime Minister said in an interview to the JDD published Sunday that “politics is like boxing. When you get into the ring, you know you are going to take shots. I take of that. I can give some too. ” “I like that,” he adds.
But he warned those who see him already gone: “to send everything on a whim, it’s not me.”
“I have sometimes been wrong”
Faced with rumors of disagreements between him and President Emmanuel Macron, he says the crisis has only “intensified” his relationship with Emmanuel Macron. “We talk a lot, we say things,” he assures the newspaper.
Faced with the “hatred” expressed by some “yellow vests” in his regard, Emmanuel Macron continues his mea culpa. Asked by a high school student in Chad about the ecological transition, he acknowledged:
“Myself, I was sometimes mistaken thinking that we could go very fast.”
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