Act 20 Yellow Vests: 33,700 Demonstrators According to the Interior, clashes in Paris and Regions

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33.700 yellow vests demonstrators according to the Minister of the Interior

Act 20 Yellow Vests gathered 33,700 people in France, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior. Demonstrations rather calm, enamelled of some clashes

The Yellow Vests paraded by the thousands on their twentieth consecutive Saturday despite the bans to demonstrate to avoid violence .

Around 7.30pm, the Ministry of the Interior announced the figures of participation:  33,700 demonstrators in France , including 4000 in Paris. Last week, they were 40,500 still according to the Interior Ministry.



The number of Yellow vests according to organisers, a collective that counts the demonstrators in all the processions of France, has registered 102,713 participants. An estimate down from the previous week.

What happened in Paris?

In the capital, the parade took place in a good-natured atmosphere. The dispersion of the Trocadero square was enamelled with a few throwing of projectiles and tear gas.

At 5pm, the police made 32 arrests , 21 verbalisations for demonstrating on the prohibited perimeter and 11 945 preventive controls, according to the prefecture.

Scarred by the rampage on the Champs-Elysees two weeks ago, the Paris police headquarters (PP) had once again banned demonstrations on the famous avenue, as well as in a perimeter including the Elysee and the National Assembly.

In total, twenty-seven prohibition orders issued by the prefectures were identified, according to a police source. The new ticket of 135 euros, to which expose those who defy the prohibition, remains in force after the rejection Friday by the State Council recourse of the League of Human Rights.

Gathering "yellow vests" near the Eiffel Tower for their twentieth consecutive Saturday event, March 30, 2019 in Paris.
Gathering “yellow vests” near the Eiffel Tower for their twentieth consecutive Saturday event, March 30, 2019 in Paris. (© AFP / Martin BUREAU)

Tensions in the regions

In the regions, the situation was particularly tense in Bordeaux . Clashes occurred late afternoon in the bastion “yellow” that the mayor had decreed “dead city” in the face of the threat of violence. The number of demonstrators was estimated at double last week (nearly 5000).

The procession, where dozens of yellow vests mingled, was diluted in small groups playing cat and mouse with the police, trying to regroup in a place not far from the city centre.

In Nice , some 300 people made their way to the hospital where Geneviève Legay, an Attac activist who was wounded a week ago, is still hospitalized . The prosecutor said Friday that the fall of the septuagenarian had been caused by a police officer, who corrected his testimony after claiming to have pushed a man.

From 1650, according to the prefecture, to 2,500 people according to the organisers, marched in Montpellier, where two policemen were wounded by projectile jets. They were between 1000 and 2000 in Lille, while several hundred “yellow vests” braved the prohibition to demonstrate in Avignon intramural and on the boulevards.

For Alexandre Chantry, one of the organizers of the movement in the North, “this week the slogan is the end of expulsions, as the winter break ends. We no longer want homeless people who die on the streets. ”

In the center of Toulouse , several hundred people were present at the start of the event. The prefecture of the Haute-Garonne had renewed its prohibition to demonstrate place of the Capitol.

At 6:30 pm, the Haute-Garonne prefecture reported  three casualties in a relative emergency . Eleven people were arrested in the city center.

In Normandy , there are three arrested in Le Havre and Rouen. On the side of Caen,  18 arrests were made by the police.



The demonstrations planned in front of factories where are manufactured equipment used by the police, in Finistère and in Sarthe , gave rise to very meager gatherings, because of a dissuasive deployment of the forces of the order.

Finally in Rennes, the police arrested 11 people, and proceeded to six verbalisations for participation in a banned demonstration including Maxime Nicolle , one of the figures of the movement.

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