Hundreds of police officers were deployed on the Champs-Élysées in central Paris, where the city authorities had banned demonstrations. Officers checked passers-by’s ID cards and ransacked their bags, while many shops were boarded up for fear of looting repeated during last year’s violence.
After a break in the summer, the yellow vests have made their comeback on the streets of France. Meetings have been announced not only in Paris, but also in other parts of the country. In Toulouse, one of the strongholds of the protest movement, authorities have banned a demonstration in connection with the corona virus. They also referred to the problems that arose during protests in 2018 and 2019.
Workers from especially outside the big cities, who noticed that they have less and less to spend, started the citizens’ movement against social injustice almost two years ago. After increases in fuel prices, the “gilets jaunes” took to the squares, streets and highways for the first time on Saturday 17 November 2018. On many Saturdays afterwards they continued to protest, with frequent violent clashes with the police.
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