Thousands of “yellow vest” protesters on Saturday took part in a fresh round of country-wide demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron's fiscal and economic roadmap.
In Paris, police said they had arrested almost 300 people while almost 100 were injured as protesters hurled projectiles at riot officers, burned cars and smashed shop fronts. In some areas, groups of masked men roamed freely, smashing properties, burning cars and vandalizing banks.
Police fired stun grenades, tear gas and water cannons at protesters at the top of the Champs-Elysees boulevard, at the Tuilleries Garden near the Louvre museum and other sites across the city including Opera and Place de la Bastille. More than a dozen metro stations were closed.
"The yellow vests will triumph," protesters scrawled on the arch's facade.
Yellow vests protesters hurl missiles during a protest close to the Arc de Triomphe against rising oil prices and living costs in the French capital Paris, December 1, 2018. /VCG Photo
"We hear worries, and things are done and concrete answers were presented by the Prime Minister (Edouard Philippe)," Benjamin Griveaux, the government spokesman, said in an interview.
"We will not change the course. We need to maintain it, but we change the way," he said, however, calling on the "Yellow Vests" to participate in a three-month consultation launched to implement the government's ecology strategy without triggering a "social alarm."
A protester wearing a yellow vest, a symbol of a French drivers' protest against higher diesel taxes, holds a French flag during clashes in Paris, France, December 1, 2018. /VCG Photo
Macron, in Argentina for a G20 summit, said he would convene ministers to discuss the crisis upon his return on Sunday.
“We are in a state of insurrection. I've never seen anything like it,” said Jeanne d'Hauteserre, the mayor of Paris' 8th district, near the Arc de Triomphe.
A protester wearing a yellow vest faces off with police during a demonstration in central Brussels, Belgium, November 30, 2018. /VCG Photo
The popular rebellion erupted out of nowhere on November 17 and spread quickly via social media. With protesters taking their name from the high visibility vests drivers keep in their cars, the "Yellow Vests" was created after several groups called for blockades and go-slow operations across the country to oppose higher fuel taxes and the rise in the price of diesel, the most commonly used car fuel in France.
(With input from Reuters and Xinhua News Agency)