France is to deploy an “exceptional” number of security forces around the country on Saturday as the government braces for yellow vest protests of “great violence” in the capital despite making key concessions.
Tourists have been urged not to cancel their trips to Paris over the protests, despite the closure of around a dozen cultural sites, including the Eiffel Tower, due to security fears.
Police urged shops and restaurants on the Champs-Elysees to shut on Saturday to avoid fresh damage after last weekend’s riots, the worst in decades.
Edouard Philippe, the prime minister, told senators that an unspecified number of additional new forces would be deployed on top of the 65,000 security officers already in place for the protests in Paris and elsewhere.
An official in Macron’s office warned that intelligence suggested some protesters intended to come to the capital this Saturday “to smash and to kill.”
The announcement came as France’s leading unions, top politicians from across the political spectrum and some “yellow vest” representatives called for calm after last Saturday’s rioting.
Mr Macron on Wednesday announced he was scrapping the green fuel tax hike that sparked the movement but protesters’ demands have now widened to a range of demands, from French workers, retirees and students.
The president himself has vanished from public view, dispatching his prime minister to front the crisis.
Mr Philippe had told parliament late on Wednesday that he was scrapping the fuel-tax increases planned for 2019, after he announced a six-month suspension the day before. Yesterday, he said he was open to studying all measures that could boost low incomes, another key “yellow vest” demand.
In another attempt to quell their anger at perceived injustice, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said France would impose its own tax on big internet firms in 2019 even if there was no consensus on a European Union-wide levy.
But in bad news for the government, protests erupted in more than 200 high schools across the country, with students setting fire to rubbish bins and a car in the western city of Nantes.
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