New demonstrations are planned across France today, Saturday, for a fourth consecutive weekend and under tight security. Attention is focused on Paris, where the “yellow vests” plan to approach centres of power, two days after a major nationwide mobilisation called by trade unions.
Hundreds of thousands of people took part in Thursday’s demonstrations: 575,000 according to the authorities and 1.6 million according to the CGT trade union. The demonstrators called for an increase in their purchasing power.
The new mobilisation aims to maintain the pressure, two days before the government convenes social dialogue with trade unions and employers on Monday morning. Meetings with student and school pupil organisations are scheduled for that afternoon.
'Yellow vests' go separate way
In a letter sent to social partners yesterday, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, facing an autumn marked by particularly intense social tensions, said he was “listening to the expectations being expressed on wages and purchasing power” as well as employers’ “concerns”. The dialogue, he said, would “allow concrete responses to be presented to the expectations of the French people”.
The coordinating body for youth organisations and regional trade unions have called for a demonstration and march “against the high cost of living and in support of young people”. The march will follow an authorised route in Paris between Place de la République and Place de la Nation, as it did on Thursday.
The “yellow vests” coordinating body decided to act independently, clearly distancing itself from the trade unions. It called a separate gathering at Place de la Concorde, which the authorities have not authorised.
“We will be at the Concorde at 14:00 and will stay there until 19:00,” Benjamin Ball, a member of the coordinating body, told the press yesterday as he left the Paris police headquarters. Despite the police headquarters’ ban on the mobilisation, he added: “We are calling for mass civil disobedience.”
The choice of the square was not accidental, said David Libeskind, a lawyer for the “yellow vests”. The Concorde is “an iconic place, close to the National Assembly, a place of power, since our demands are political”.
The “yellow vests” expect around 120 demonstrations across the country today, far fewer than the 1,700 mobilisations on 17 October.
After Thursday’s mobilisation, which “generally went smoothly”, according to the Interior Ministry, the authorities want at all costs to prevent a repeat of the unrest and looting seen on 17 October, the first Saturday of demonstrations.
The reinforced deployment of security forces has continued. A total of 70,000 police officers and gendarmes have been deployed across France, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced.
Source: CNA
