SOCIAL: The national mobilisation of yellow vests, one of the weakest since the beginning of the movement, was however slightly higher compared to last Saturday
Some 10,000 protesters throughout France, according to the Interior Ministry, 19,654, according to the “yellow vests” who dispute the official figures. The movement recorded a weak mobilization this Saturday. The national mobilisation, one of the weakest since the beginning of the movement, was however slightly higher compared to the previous Saturday (9,500 demonstrators according to the Interior).
In Montpellier, where a national call to demonstrate had been launched, more than 2,000 people according to the prefecture, 5,000 according to the “yellow vests”, gathered at noon Place de la Comedie. From the start of the procession, clashes erupted with the police, who used massively tear gas to repel the demonstrators, as well as water cannons, in busy streets.
Vives tensions Place de la Comédie à Montpellier entre gilets jaunes et manifestants.
Selon les forces de l’ordre, entre 4 et 500 fauteurs de troubles se seraient immiscer dans la manifestation des #giletsjaunesPlus d’infos : https://t.co/Mwm2YEoFRP pic.twitter.com/wDKvOkNPcU
— France3Languedoc (@F3Languedoc) 8 June 2019
Sixteen people were arrested in Montpellier
The clashes caused a dozen light injuries according to the prefecture, among the demonstrators and among the police after throwing missiles and pyrotechnic devices, a policeman having been burned by the arm. “We do not deplore any serious injuries despite the high level of violence of the demonstrators who came for the confrontation,” the prefecture said, while at around 6.30 pm, around 200 demonstrators were gathered in the city centre. Sixteen people were arrested according to the prefecture, banks and street furniture were degraded.
On the Place de la Comedie, whose floor is strewn with broken glass bottles, stones and pieces of wood, a large yellow banner had been unfurled: “You only talk, listen to us. We do not want an army down here. ” Refused to this central square and then repeatedly evacuated by the CRS, “yellow vests” saying “very angry” and “disgusted” to have been “prevented from demonstrating”, then spread through the city centre, playing cat and mouse with the police.
“Yellow vests in the suburbs, act one”
In the suburbs of Paris, a march from Saint-Denis to Bobigny entitled “Yellow vests in the suburbs, act one”, gathered a thousand people. The demonstrators had met at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis to converge then to the prefecture of Bobigny through several cities in the Paris suburbs, such as the 4000 in La Courneuve.
Some demonstrators opened the march with a banner “neither forgetting nor forgiveness 2005-2019” with reference to the date of the death of Zyed and Bouna, who died in a transformer in Clichy-sous-Bois in 2005 while fleeing the police. Their death sparked a wave of revolt in the suburbs. Scuffles erupted in Drancy and the approach of the prefecture in Bobigny.
In Bordeaux, the “yellow vests” crossed the many supporters of Stade Toulousain
In other cities of France, the mobilisation was lower, as in Lille (500 demonstrators, according to the prefecture). In Bordeaux, about 600 “yellow vests” crossed the many supporters of Stade Toulousain, in red, and Stade Rochelais, in black, a few hours before the semi-final of the Top 14 rugby. Twenty people were verbalised for demonstrating in the City Centre, prohibited area by prefectural decree.
In the East, in Nancy, a procession of 350 “yellow vests” marched in the city centre, under the surveillance of 150 policemen, according to the prefecture of Meurthe-et-Moselle. Some fumigants were lit and posters with anti-capitalist slogans affixed to businesses belonging to large groups said the prefecture. In Dijon, 12 people were arrested Saturday afternoon, especially for violence and degrading, and a CRS was injured during a protest for the act 30 of the movement of “yellow vests,” said the prefecture from Côte-d’Or.
