Fresh clashes in the “yellow vest” fuel price protests across France led to more injuries on Sunday, adding to the more than 400 already reported by the government, as some demonstrators vowed to continue their action over the coming days.
France 24reports “around 46,000 people took part across France in a second day of protests, police said, compared to Saturday when close to 300,000 people participated, although there were again clashes with police — and sometimes motorists.
Police were searching for a driver who forced a road block at Saint-Quentin, northeast France, leaving one protester seriously injured. Police used tear gas to break up a gathering of about a thousand protesters near the northern city of Caen, after acts of vandalism and the burning of wooden pallets.
The protesters, nicknamed “yellow vests” for the high-visibility jackets they wear, blocked roundabouts, major highways and thoroughfares on Saturday to express anger over increased taxes on fuel and their shrinking purchasing power under President Emmanuel Macron.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Sunday evening said the government would stay the course, but acknowledged the “suffering” expressed by the protests. “A government that always changes its stance, zigzagging through difficulties… would not lead France in the right direction,” he told France 2 television.
