Riot police fire tear gas as 30000 protestors burn Paris
In scenes that could have been written by Hugo himself, thousands of protesters wearing yellow high-visibility jackets are marching in Paris, singing La Marseillaise and building barricades in a thick fog of tear gas. Thousands more have assembled peacefully in streets around the capital and elsewhere in the country, their distinctive attire earning them the nickname ‘les Gilets Jaunes’, or the Yellow Jackets. Autoroutes are blocked, Metro stations closed. It’s one of the largest uprisings France has seen for years.
The movement is a loose one, describing itself as “apolitical” and having “neither leader nor doctrine”. Its social media posts rail variously against the establishment, taxes, housing benefits, labour laws and social security, but the sparks first flew outside outside the towns, on the B-roads and forecourts of rural and semi-rural France. People are angry about the cost of fuel, and...