French student protests intensify alongside 'yellow vest' revolt
Scores of protesting teens clashed with police at a high school west of Paris on Thursday, according to French news reports, as part of nationwide student actions over university admissions procedures and rising administrative fees. Drivers wearing their signature yellow safety vests continued to block roads around France, now demanding broader tax cuts and government aid.
- World
- AFP
- Published Date: 12:00 | 06 December 2018
- Modified Date: 07:37 | 06 December 2018
Two truck driver unions have also called an indefinite sympathy strike from Sunday night, while blockades at fuel depots have caused shortages in Brittany, Normandy, and southeast regions of France.
- 'BRINK OF INSURRECTION' -
France remains on edge after the "yellow vest" protests degenerated into some of the worst violence in decades in central Paris last Saturday.
Dozens of cars were burned, more than 400 people arrested and the Arc de Triomphe was daubed in graffiti.
Officials fear more violence this weekend after organisers called for new demonstrations, saying Macron's decision to cancel fuel tax increases and other concessions were not enough.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told senators Thursday that "exceptional measures" would be in place on Saturday in addition to the deployment of 65,000 security forces across France.
On Thursday a yellow-vest representative, Benjamin Cauchy, called on Macron to meet a delegation of protesters Friday to help calm a situation that he said had brought the country "to the brink of insurrection and civil war."
"We're asking him to meet us to negotiate on spending power, which is what underpins all this anger," Cauchy told AFP.
Four people have died in accidents linked to the protests since they began on November 17, and hundreds have been injured.