18, March 2019
France: Prime Minister to present new plans to crack down on ‘rioters’ 0
The French prime minister’s office says it will present plans to further crack down on “rioters”, after a new flare-up of violence the government says is linked to the so-called Yellow Vest protest movement.
The decision was made after a crisis meeting of the cabinet ministers and President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday.
PM Edouard Philippe’s office said the latest violence showed current security arrangements were insufficient. The office added that security forces should prepare for firmer measures to stop the violence.
“Drawing conclusions from these shortcomings, the prime minister will present the president tomorrow with measures necessary to adapt the security forces stance so they can act with firmness at any time,” it said in a statement.
Cutting short a weekend ski trip, President Emmanuel Macron returned to Paris late on Saturday for a crisis meeting with ministers at which he ordered decisions to be taken rapidly “so this doesn’t happen again.”
Vandals left hardly a storefront or cafe unscathed on Saturday, breaking windows and looting luxury stores while lighting fires along Paris’ Champs Elysees Avenue as they clashed with riot police in Paris.
“I’m not a tourist but if I were, I would be quite surprised if I arrived in Paris to find the Champs Elysees in such condition,” a pensioner who only gave his name as Serge told Reuters TV.
“People often talk about the ‘City of Lights’, the ‘Fashion Capital’ and all that, but all you can see is destruction, rubbish, protests, burnt kiosks,” he added.
Police estimated that 10,000 people joined the latest yellow vest protest in Paris and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said a hard-core of about 1,500 was intent on causing trouble.
The yellow vest movement emerged in November originally to oppose now abandoned fuel tax hikes and the high cost of living.
The protests quickly spiraled into a broader movement against Macron, his pro-business reforms and elitism in general.
After the spike in violence, Macron offered a package of concessions worth more than 10 billion euros ($11 billion) aimed at boosting the incomes of the poorest workers and pensioners.
Presstv
31, March 2019
Several people injured as Catalan separatists clash with far-right activists in Barcelona 0
Five people were injured and seven arrested on Saturday as members of Spain’s far-right Vox party demonstrating in Barcelona against Catalan independence clashed with separatist activists there, police said.
The violence came amid rising tension in the run-up to parliamentary elections next month and the continuing trial of 12 Catalan leaders for their part in the failed 2017 independence bid.
Police estimated that around 5,000 members of Vox demonstrated in the Catalan capital, in the words of their leader Santiago Abascal to “defend to the very end a united Spain”.
“Spain will not resign itself to being destroyed,” Abascal told the crowd.
Several groups of radical Catalan separatists, many of them masked, had organised counter-demonstrations around the Vox rally, which took place in the Plaza de Espana.
Carrying banners denouncing fascism about 300 of them set up barricades, burning rubbish bins, and throwing bottles and stones at officers, said police.
Vox made its electoral breakthrough when it won seats in the Andalusia regional assembly last December. It is expected to pick up more nationally in the April 28 parliamentary elections.
In the trial of the Catalan nationalists, it has taken the position of a “popular prosecutor”, a role particular to the Spanish justice system, which allows it to be an accuser alongside state prosecutors.
Spain’s socialist government has rejected suggestions that prosecution of the Catalan separatists has been unfair.
(AFP)