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Yellow Vest anti-govt protests refuse to die down, 50,000 clash with police, smash ministry building with bulldozer in Paris

Authorities have called the act ‘unacceptable attack on the French Republic’ 

The ‘Yellow Vest’ protests have refused to die down, as more and more people join the anti-govt demonstrations. The latest being the number estimated at 50,000 from the 30,000 that was estimated by the French authorities in December.

In the past few days, protesters have clashed with police in several French cities, smashing their way into a government ministry in Paris with a forklift, using it as a bulldozer, to damage the entrance of the building.

Benjamin Griveaux – a government spokesman evacuated from his ministry in central Paris on Saturday when a handful of protesters in high-visibility vests smashed down the large wooden door to the ministry compound – denounced the break-in as an “unacceptable attack on the Republic”.

“Some yellow vest protesters and other people dressed in black … got hold of a construction vehicle which was in the street nearby and smashed open the entrance gate to the ministry,” he was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying.

The Yellow Vest protests, began on November 17 over increase in taxes, especially on diesel fuel, and have since widened into an uprising against President Emmanuel Macron’s policies and become the biggest challenge to his presidency.

The government finally rolled back its decision and announced plans to halt the proposed increases, but the protests refuse to die down.

 

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