FRENCH yellow vest protesters have launched fresh marches to remind the government that rebuilding the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral is not the only problem the nation needs to solve.
Security was extra-high in Paris as authorities braced for resurgent yellow vest anger, and Paris police said some 70 people were detained by mid-morning.
Multiple protest events were being held around Paris and other cities yesterday for the 23rd weekend of the yellow vest movement against wealth inequality and President Emmanuel Macron’s leadership.
One group of about 200 people tried to march on the president’s Elysee Palace in central Paris, but riot police blocked them at the neo-classical Madeleine Church.
Another group gathered around the Finance Ministry in eastern Paris to demand lower taxes on workers and pensioners and higher taxes on the rich.
Yet another group is trying to demonstrate yellow vest mourning over the Notre Dame blaze while also keeping up pressure on Macron.
The group wanted to march to Notre Dame itself, but were banned by police, who have set up a large security perimeter around the area.
Many protesters were deeply saddened by the fire at a national monument. But at the same time they are angry at the $1 billion (£770 million) in Notre Dame donations that poured in from tycoons while their own demands remain largely unmet and they struggle to make ends meet.
Some 60,000 police officers were mobilised for yesterday’s protests across France as the interior minister warned of the risk of resurgent violence.
The movement is largely peaceful but extremists have attacked treasured monuments, shops and banks and clashed with police.
The heavy police presence meant subway stations and roads around Paris were closed, stopping tourists who converged on the French capital for an exceptionally warm spring day.
Macron had been scheduled to lay out his responses to yellow vest concerns on Monday night last week – but cancelled the speech because the fire broke out.
He is now expected to do so next Thursday.
Yellow vest critics accuse Macron of trying to exploit the fire for political gain – one group marching yesterday even accused Macron of “burning down Notre Dame”.
The catastrophic fire engulfed the famous building, toppling its spire and threatening the entire wooden frame.
Architects and construction workers have now stabilised the damaged structure, four days after a fast-spreading fire ravaged the Paris building.
“There is no more risk the edifice’s walls could fall down,” Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel Plus said, adding firefighters have been able to cool down the walls and debris from the roof inside the cathedral. “It’s a miracle that the cathedral is still standing, and that all the relics were saved,” he said.
Some prominent yellow vest figures who had stopped protesting recently said they would return to the streets yesterday, out of an even greater sense of being overlooked since the Notre Dame tragedy. Anti-rich messages have flourished on social media in recent days as yellow vest protesters exhorted wealthy donors to be more generous with France’s underclass.
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