PARIS — French protest groups and unions called on Sunday for more demonstrations, urging people back onto the streets next Saturday and backing a nationwide strike on Nov. 5, according to Reuters.
The Interior Ministry said 410,000 people took part in Saturday’s marches. Authorities deployed 70,000 police, and the ministry said the operation helped avert a repeat of the looting and vandalism seen in many cities on Oct. 17.
“We see an aggregation of anger,” Murielle Guilbert, co-leader of the Solidaires trade union federation, told BFM TV. Guilbert said grievances from students, workers, firefighters and other groups were converging.
“We call on people to take to the streets next Saturday.”
The SUD Education teaching union said it would join the Oct. 31 demonstration. The CGT, a large union federation, said it would decide during the week.
The Yellow Vests also called for mass rallies next Saturday, including sit-ins outside town halls and the National Assembly.
“There is anger in this country. It’s growing in schools and universities, on roundabouts, in neighbourhoods, on farms and in workplaces,” activist Azelma Sigaux told reporters.
President Emmanuel Macron could reduce fuel costs in 2019 when the Yellow Vests first rose against fuel taxes. This time, strained public finances leave him with little room to meet the protesters’ demands, and his mandate expires next April.
His centrist party no longer holds the majority needed to pass major legislation.
The government has begun talks with unions and student representatives. Protest leaders say the measures proposed so far are inadequate.
“We have received no response at all from this government,” Guilbert said.
Police unions said on Sunday they did not have enough staff to maintain Saturday’s level of deployment for any length of time. Disorder on Saturday was limited to sporadic clashes in a number of cities, including Paris and Marseille.
The Interior Ministry said on Sunday that 1,314 people were arrested on Saturday, about half the number a week earlier, and about 50 police officers were injured, compared with more than 1,000 the previous week.
Also Read: 410,000 Protest Across France as Clashes Flare in Several Cities
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