Streets in France are battlefields: Yellow Vests also participated in the demonstrations

Yellow Vests, farmers, climate activists and unions, who reacted to the student protests that have been going on in France since last month, the high cost of living and the increase in fuel prices, also participated. There were clashes between protesters and the police during the demonstrations held in many cities such as the capital Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg, Rennes and Toulouse.

While the French Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that approximately 33 thousand people participated in the protests at 140 different points across the country, CGT, one of the country's largest unions, stated that 500 thousand people participated in the protests across the country. French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced that 150 police officers were injured and 1200 people were detained in the incidents.

'WE ARE IN THE SAME BOAT'

While demonstrations around the Presidential Palace, the Prime Ministry and the Champs-Élysées Boulevard were banned in Paris, thousands of people participated in two separate protests, one led by students and the other by Yellow Vests. Slogans were shouted in Paris demanding that President Emmanuel Macron resign. The building housing a tourism office in the city of Lyon was set on fire. Some protesters attacked the offices of right-wing news network CNews in Paris. Speaking to AFP, a high school student named Valentin said, "It is nice to see this solidarity between young people, adults and even retirees. We are all in the same boat. Maybe the government will listen to us when it sees that all generations are mobilized."

RAID ON THE CITY HALL

In Marseille, the country's second largest city, a group of masked people attacked the city hall by breaking down its doors with iron barriers. Protesters drew the letter "A", the symbol of anarchism, on the walls of the building. It was stated that the bust of Marianne in the building, one of France's famous monuments of freedom, was destroyed, and the protesters were removed from the building by police intervention. Some demonstrators were attacked with tear gas on the city streets.