MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Fuel price protests over the weekend across France leave over 400 injured

Some 300.000 took to the streets on Saturday to protest fuel prices and another 46.000 yellow vest marched on Sunday

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.

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.

And 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.

“We heard anger but also heard suffering, the lack of prospects, the idea that the authorities for a long time did not respond to the concerns and feeling of abandonment felt by part of the population,” he said.

He said workers would ultimately have less of a tax burden by the end of Macron's mandate, with some measures already feeding through this year, such as reduced housing tax bills.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner earlier reported that the first day and night of protests had left one person dead and more than 400 people hurt, 14 of them seriously.

French retail group Auchan reported violent incidents at around 20 shopping centers where it operates hypermarkets. The injured, 409 in total, included 28 police, paramilitary police or firefighters.
A poll also published in the Journal du Dimanche indicated that Macron's popularity had dipped a further four points to 25%.