BREAKING NEWS: IN FRANCE PHASE FIVE OF THE YELLOW VESTS PROTESTS
(LATEST NEWS AT THE BOTTOM OF POST WHICH STARTED LATE FRIDAY NIGHT)
(125AM EASTERN US, 725AM PARIS TIME)
(125AM EASTERN US, 725AM PARIS TIME)
Back in 1968 the May student protests eventually sputtered as public opinion moved away from their protest.
But the presidency of Charles de Gaulle was doomed. He would resign within a year in the middle of a then seven year term.
Emmanuel Macron is now trying to restore his popularity and shift attention working off the terrorist attack in Strasbourg. Macron visited the site of Tuesday's attack yesterday and offered up sympathy for the victims and praise for the police.
Leaders do that after every terrorist attack in the 9/11 tradition treading ever so carefully around the topic of Islam. The ultimate source of the terrorist ideology being Saudi Arabia with its money and its power. Talk about "Islamic extremism" but don't try to pin Sunni Islamic extremism on anyone other than maybe Shia Islamic Iran to suit the US-Saudi agenda.
Back to France today and we are about to see what will happen in Paris and other places today Saturday December 15th.
Christmas is coming and there are certainly concessions on the table but as two yellow vest protesters told the media in Versailles on Thursday, what's needed are deep and fundamental reforms, constitutional reforms in France.
They called for deep tax cuts and a cut in government spending on perks for the government elite in France including rent free housing, pensions etc. etc. etc.
Weatherwise in France today a snow and ice alert in Normandy and regions next to it.
More to come soon......
(2AM EASTERN US, 8AM PARIS TIME)
The French authorities say they have 69,000 police mobilized nationwide today in anticipation of fewer protesters than the 136,000 last Saturday.
Armored cars and police vans lined up on the Champs-Elysees and police saying they expect fewer protests but more "determined ones" as they put it.
Cars are banned in downtown Paris today.
Protests are expected along highways in France with many roads blocked especially in the south of France.
Police have decided to shut down a stretch of the A6 highway between Paris and Lyon because yellow vests were planning a blockade and the police apparently wanted to avoid any pedestrians being hit.
Daylight beginning to shine in the streets of Paris but still waiting to see protesters at this point.
More coming later......
(315 AM EASTERN US, 915 AM PARIS TIME)
So far six arrests reported in Paris.
A few minutes ago the French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner spoke with police at the edge of the Place de la Concorde for a few minutes.
There are also reports of arrests in other areas around Paris, 25 in total.
BFM-TV reports a more scattered crowd of yellow vests in Paris at this moment, more sparse than in previous weeks. There are groups protesting at other locations in France.
Groups of yellow vests are now visible in the vicinity of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on the Champs-Elysees.
The protesters are now marching down the Champs-Elysees.
(525 AM EASTERN TIME US, 1125AM IN PARIS)
Some one thousand demonstrators estimated on the streets in Paris today according to police with 43 arrests reported within the last hour total,
The protesters gathered in a group to symbolically get on their knees and put their hands behind their heads like over a hundred high school students were told to earlier this month when arrested by police during a protest.
There was also a moment of silence for the six killed and hundreds wounded during the yellow vests protests.
Mobile units are following the protesters as they continue their planned march in the center of the city.
Police and protesters facing off in the march area in the 16th Arrondissement de Paris.
Some protesters again sitting down and putting their hands behind their heads symbolic of the controversial arrests of more than 100 high school students earlier this month in a town just west of Paris.
(7AM EASTERN US, 1 PM IN PARIS)
Protesters have followed their plan in Paris and reached the Opera House.
There have been confrontations as police boxed in protesters on the Champs-Elysees.
72 arrests are reported in Paris.
(735AM EASTERN US, 135 PM IN PARIS)
The protesters observed a moment of silence again at the Opera House.
Some 92 arrests now reported in Paris with 53 remaining in custody.
(830AM EASTERN US, 230 PM IN PARIS)
At the memorial to the terrorist attack victims in Strasbourg a vellow vest was laid among the flowers today.
95 arrests now reported in Paris.
Those figures as well as figures on the numbers of protesters today will be revised and added to as the the day moves on into the night and tomorrow.
The protesters are calling for a "citizen initiative referendum" which allows new laws to be proposed in France if 700-thousand signatures can be obtained.
This concludes the post for now.......
Christmas is coming and there are certainly concessions on the table but as two yellow vest protesters told the media in Versailles on Thursday, what's needed are deep and fundamental reforms, constitutional reforms in France.
They called for deep tax cuts and a cut in government spending on perks for the government elite in France including rent free housing, pensions etc. etc. etc.
Weatherwise in France today a snow and ice alert in Normandy and regions next to it.
More to come soon......
(2AM EASTERN US, 8AM PARIS TIME)
The French authorities say they have 69,000 police mobilized nationwide today in anticipation of fewer protesters than the 136,000 last Saturday.
Armored cars and police vans lined up on the Champs-Elysees and police saying they expect fewer protests but more "determined ones" as they put it.
Cars are banned in downtown Paris today.
Protests are expected along highways in France with many roads blocked especially in the south of France.
Police have decided to shut down a stretch of the A6 highway between Paris and Lyon because yellow vests were planning a blockade and the police apparently wanted to avoid any pedestrians being hit.
Daylight beginning to shine in the streets of Paris but still waiting to see protesters at this point.
More coming later......
(315 AM EASTERN US, 915 AM PARIS TIME)
So far six arrests reported in Paris.
A few minutes ago the French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner spoke with police at the edge of the Place de la Concorde for a few minutes.
There are also reports of arrests in other areas around Paris, 25 in total.
BFM-TV reports a more scattered crowd of yellow vests in Paris at this moment, more sparse than in previous weeks. There are groups protesting at other locations in France.
Groups of yellow vests are now visible in the vicinity of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on the Champs-Elysees.
The protesters are now marching down the Champs-Elysees.
(525 AM EASTERN TIME US, 1125AM IN PARIS)
Some one thousand demonstrators estimated on the streets in Paris today according to police with 43 arrests reported within the last hour total,
The protesters gathered in a group to symbolically get on their knees and put their hands behind their heads like over a hundred high school students were told to earlier this month when arrested by police during a protest.
There was also a moment of silence for the six killed and hundreds wounded during the yellow vests protests.
Mobile units are following the protesters as they continue their planned march in the center of the city.
Police and protesters facing off in the march area in the 16th Arrondissement de Paris.
Some protesters again sitting down and putting their hands behind their heads symbolic of the controversial arrests of more than 100 high school students earlier this month in a town just west of Paris.
(7AM EASTERN US, 1 PM IN PARIS)
Protesters have followed their plan in Paris and reached the Opera House.
There have been confrontations as police boxed in protesters on the Champs-Elysees.
72 arrests are reported in Paris.
(735AM EASTERN US, 135 PM IN PARIS)
The protesters observed a moment of silence again at the Opera House.
Some 92 arrests now reported in Paris with 53 remaining in custody.
(830AM EASTERN US, 230 PM IN PARIS)
At the memorial to the terrorist attack victims in Strasbourg a vellow vest was laid among the flowers today.
95 arrests now reported in Paris.
Those figures as well as figures on the numbers of protesters today will be revised and added to as the the day moves on into the night and tomorrow.
The protesters are calling for a "citizen initiative referendum" which allows new laws to be proposed in France if 700-thousand signatures can be obtained.
This concludes the post for now.......
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