1,300 people were checked this morning in Paris. Several hundred yellow Vests demonstrators are scattered in Paris, squared by the police.
Several hundred people claiming ” yellow vests ” were gathered in Paris Saturday morning in different parts of the capital under the supervision of the police.
At 11:35, there had been 65 arrests, and several people verbalized near the Champs-Elysees, area where it is forbidden to demonstrate, said the police headquarters of Paris.
Some of them were in possession of hammers or jerrycans. The police had checked 1249 people and had verbalized thirteen.
Protesters, most without yellow vests but claiming this social movement born November 17th, 2018, were blocked by police in the neighbourhood of the station Saint-Lazare. They fired tear gas once to disperse the protesters, who then headed for the Champs-Elysees.
“We are treated like criminals”, irritated Brigitte, an environmental activist. Among the slogans heard: “the street, it is ours”.
“This day is symbolic for us, for the convergence of the struggles between climate, pensions,” said Eric, “yellow vest” from Toulouse with his partner, both executives. They planned to go for the walk for the weather forecast on Saturday afternoon.
The neighbourhoods of Etoile and Champs-Elysees were squared with patrols of uniformed and plainclothes policemen checking and massively searching the people present.
A water launcher was parked on the top of the Champs Elysees in front of the drugstore Publicis while Fouquet’s restaurant, ransacked on March 16, was barricaded and guarded by two policemen.
For this day of multiple demonstrations in Paris, the authorities say fear a return of violence, as at the height of the movement of “yellow vests”. A security source evokes risks of “convergence” between “yellow vests” and “black blocks that want to break everything” but also “infiltration” of the march for the climate.
The police prefect Didier Lallement has announced a major security device, including 7500 members of the police.
