Around famous areas including the Champs-Elysees, the Louvre museum, the Opera and Place Vendome, smashed shop windows, broken glass and the occasional burned-out car were testament to the violence.
Dozens of cars were torched by the gangs of rioters, some of whom wore gas masks and ski goggles to lessen the effects of tear gas which was fired continually by police.
One person was in a critical condition after protesters pulled down one of the huge iron gates of the Tuileries garden by the Louvre, crushing several people.
At the Arc de Triomphe graffiti had been daubed, with one slogan saying: “The yellow vests will win.”
French President Emmanuel Macron flanked by ministers walks in a street of Paris on December 2, 2018, a day after clashes. PHOTO:AFP
French President Emmanuel Macron flanked by ministers walks in a street of Paris on December 2, 2018, a day after clashes. PHOTO:AFP
Some 136,000 demonstrators, most of them peaceful, were counted across the country on Saturday, the interior ministry said Sunday.
The figure was well below the first day of protests on November 17, which attracted around 282,000 people, and also down on the revised figure of 166,000 who turned out last Saturday.
Referring to the possibility of imposing a state of emergency — a demand made by the police union Alliance — Castaner declared: “Nothing is taboo for me. I am prepared to examine everything.”
Over the last few weeks, the “yellow vest” movement has morphed into a broad opposition front to Macron, 40, a pro-business centrist elected in May 2017.
Violent anarchist and far-right groups have infiltrated it and are thought to be behind Saturday’s clashes.
Macron faces a dilemma in how to respond, not least because the “yellow vests” are a grassroots movement with no formal leaders and a wide range of demands.
“We have said that we won’t change course. Because the course is good,” government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told BFM television defiantly on Sunday morning.
“It’s been 30 years that people change course every 18 months,” he added, referring to Macron’s predecessors who have often caved in to pressure from French street protests.
Jacline Mouraud, one of the protest movement’s prime instigators over social media forums, told AFP that scrapping the fuel tax was a “prerequisite for any discussion” with the government.
Macron insists the taxes are needed to fund the country’s transition to a low-emission economy.
Despite the violence, opinion polls suggest that two in three French people back the protests.
