Hundreds Arrested in Paris Over Cost of Living Protests

By Staff, Agencies

More than a hundred “Yellow Vest” demonstrators have been arrested in Paris with the French capital witnessing the resurgence of the grassroots protest movement amid the worsening cost of living crisis.

The protests on Saturday came in reaction to the deteriorating cost of living crisis and unpopular reforms of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Mobile riot police intervened swiftly to break up protests by several hundred people wearing gilets jaunes [yellow vests], some in masks, around the Place de la Republique and also near the Champs Elysees.

Most of those detained were fined for “gathering with the intention of committing violence or damaging property.”

The demonstrators were responding to calls on social media to “occupy the streets of Paris” and “revolt against the traitors who govern us.”

Similar protests were staged in other French cities across the country, such as Toulouse and Lyons.

The yellow vest protests, which kicked off in 2018, a year after Macron assumed power, at first advocated economic justice and later called for institutional political reforms.

After continuing for months on a weekly basis, the protests lost momentum largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France.

The reappearance of protesters on Saturday has raised the alarm as France, and Europe in general, face a power crunch amid cuts in Russian supplies in the wake of the ongoing military operation in Ukraine.